


Beauty x Beast

by NaoCarolina



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Dubious Consent, Eventual Smut, F/M, Rubbing, Tags May Change, pretty sure he should be a relationship choice, someone give Dum Dum some love?, what do I know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:49:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28913382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaoCarolina/pseuds/NaoCarolina
Summary: V and Dum Dum have started doing gigs together. It’s strictly biz, but relationships tend to change over time - especially if one of the pair is an obsessive cyberpsycho.
Relationships: Dum Dum/Female V (Cyberpunk 2077)
Comments: 61
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was maybe a little one-off but I don’t know. I would like Dum Dum to get what he wants, but likely he’ll go about it in the wrong way and it’ll blow up in his face. I wasn’t really sure who’s POV to write this from so it’s a bit all over the place. I think if I do it again it will be Dum Dum’s because I love writing for lusty, obsessed crazies. 
> 
> Tags I dunno. And warnings, maybe it gets rapey if I write more.
> 
> Apologies for: inaccuracies, canon bending, how short it is, how much effort I put in, grammar, spelling and anything else that offended you. 
> 
> Lastly, more Dum Dum/female V fics wooooo yeah  
> N x

‘Y’interestin’ to me, V.’

Dum Dum’s voice rattled mechanically. It was almost oppressive, like running a knife along a metal railing, but V was used to it by now. Ever since the flathead pickup about two months previously where they had found themselves fighting on the same side, the pair had deigned to spend a little more time with each other. It had begun with Dum Dum repaying the debt, and then had gradually turned into a mutually beneficial arrangement. If V needed a little muscle of the more intimidating kind, she would send a text to Dum Dum - and he would be there, ironed up, several borgs in tow. In return, Dum Dum was utilising V’s contacts to bridge the gap with a more polite society, and the sort of clients that Maelstrom gang members struggled to cultivate, they being for all intensive purposes dangerous, disfigured monsters. The arrangement worked perfectly for them both. They even seemed to get along for the most part. It was far from forging a companionship on V’s part, but he tended to do what she told him to and that was valuable.

That evening, V had requested Dum Dum’s presence to join her before meeting a shady anon in a back alley within the depths of Kabuki. The text had simply read: “D - NEED U PLUS 2 OR 3” and the address. When they had met at the agreed time, at the agreed location however, V was dismayed to see that Dum Dum had come alone.

“What the fuck?” V had said, throwing her arms up in the air as he walked towards her.  
Dum Dum smiled, shrugging his chrome-tortured shoulders.  
“If we get fuckin’ jumped and it’s just the two of us?”  
“Oh, fuck me...” he growled, taking his gun out. “You worry too much, sweetie.”  
“I said you and two or three, D.” She had taken to calling him “D” - instead of his full name. She had no idea how much he enjoyed it when she did. It made him feel weirdly warm inside.  
“No one was up for it.”  
“Bull-fucking-shit. You can get that group of brain-dead fuckos to do whatever you like.”  
Dum Dum grinned.  
“I’m fuckin’ tellin’ you... no one could make it.” He spoke the last few words like he was talking to a two year old.  
V had glared him before shaking her head and setting off in the direction of the meet with Dum Dum trailing behind her, taking full opportunity to observe her fine behind.

It turned out that more metal was in fact entirely unnecessary. The hook up went without a hitch; V handing over some “lost” items in return for eddies. The man that had arrived barely got out of his car for more than 30 seconds. V did notice him glance over at Dum Dum leaning against a wall some way behind her.  
“Didn’t know you ran with Maelstrom.” The client had murmured wearily.  
“I don’t.” V said firmly, taking the shard that held the virtual currency.  
“That’s just my... friend.” 

*****

‘In what way?’ 

She gazed at him under her eyelashes. She had a feeling what was going to happen here. The fact that he had turned up alone was weird, but she was no fool. Besides, it was like he’d been leading up to this point for a while. His gaze often lingered on her a little too long. She wasn’t really sure how to feel about it. 

‘Ah, in all sortsa’ ways... you’re a tough fuck. You’re a deadly little chick.’ The borg scratched his neck absentmindedly.  
‘I realised that I knew almost nothing about you so I... did a little research.’  
‘And what did you find?’  
‘You know what I found.’  
V smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.  
‘That’s right. Fuck. All.’ Dum Dum whispered impressively. ‘You’re kinda’ hard to track down.’  
‘Don’t think anyone leaves an online trace these days, not if they can help it.’  
He shrugged. ‘Depends if they want a reputation.’  
Dum Dum inhaled, and V heard the soft whirring of what was likely a pirate upgrade inside his chest, probably something replacing an organ.  
‘I mean sure, there might be.. other reasons why I’m interested.’  
The eyes that could now be more accurately described as headlights appeared to dip to her collarbone.  
‘You’re a fuckin’ honey.’  
‘Dream on.’ She cooed softly at him.  
He moved in, making her instinctively rest her back against the wall behind. He placed his metal hand above her head.  
‘Y’know... My tongue is capable of things that would blow your pretty little mind.’  
Dum Dum proceeded to open his mouth and push his tongue forward. V eyed the metal monstrosity for a second. A zip connector ran backwards into his throat, and although there was still some organic tissue connecting the muscle to his head, the majority of it had been replaced with chrome. She watched his salvia stretch over it, like slick oil sliding over machinery.  
‘Fascinating. I bet that gets you a lot of girls. Although the cyborg-metalhead look probably makes just as many sick.’  
He barked out a harsh guttural laugh.  
‘So fucking funny.’ He sniffed, his red-lights were scanning her relentlessly.  
‘I don’t make you sick though, do I, V?’  
‘I have a strong constitution.’ V said plainly.  
The Maelstrom gang member pulled out his pistol and looked at it for a second before putting it to her neck. He gently pushed the muzzle into her skin and leant in even closer. He appeared to shudder a little with excitement.  
‘Could just force you. Could just... fuckin’ make you.’  
V smiled serenely up at him, unflinching, while Dum Dum’s glowing red orbs glinted back at her.  
‘Is that how you want it?’ She said quietly after a careful pause.  
She felt him tick.  
‘What?’  
‘You want to fuck me at gun-point?’  
‘Why fuckin’ not?’ He said, squinting, slightly unsettled.  
V’s eyes sparkled.  
‘Just... can’t see you doing that to me...’  
For the first time, Dum Dum scowled.  
‘Shut the fuck up. I see what you’re fuckin’ doin’.’  
But she persisted. ‘It’s not what you want, is it... not at all.’  
V moved her hand down to his crotch.  
‘You know that with me involved.. Would make it more... fun.’  
Dum Dum grimaced as his chest started to rise and fall steadily.  
‘For your fuckin’ information...’ he muttered, still pressing the gun into V’s throat, ‘I’ll take your fuckin’ little whore-pussy any way I can.’ He grunted a little as V rubbed the erection through his leathers.  
‘That’s rude.’  
‘Fuck.’ His head swam.  
V fingered the length of it, swollen and straining against the material. She felt it pulse.  
‘Is that an upgrade too?’ She whispered, almost grinning.  
‘Shut your fucking mouth or I swear I’ll force you down on it.’  
V raised her eyebrows in mock surprise.  
‘Oh no, I have no intention of going any where near it. Just a.. morbid curiosity...’ she said, moving her hand away.  
Dum Dum’s red eyes blazed. Unable to contain his frustration, he roared in anger and aimed his gun down the alley, firing off three rounds before shoving it back into her neck.  
V didn’t move but slowly stopped smiling. The white hot muzzle burnt her skin. They both heard a small hiss. She gritted her teeth.  
‘I think we have concluded our business here, D...’ she said calmly.  
He stepped backwards almost immediately, panting from the adrenaline, trying and failing to remove the expression of pure regret.  
After a few moments used to calm himself down, he tensed and huffed like a wounded beast giving out at the end of a hunt.  
‘You... you fuckin’ mess with my head.’ He tried to say as gently as possible. V watched him move his hand over the extra sets of orbs in his horribly disfigured face.  
‘I know... I’m sorry.’ She rested her head back on the wall, smirking.  
After a few seconds of simply breathing at each other, Dum Dum holstered his gun irritably.  
‘You’re a fucking tease. Of course you fucking are.’  
V shook her head.  
‘No, I’m not.’  
She pushed herself up off of the wall and slid past him.  
‘You’re just shit at playin’ this game.’  
She put her hands in her pockets and turned her head towards him but stared resolutely at the ground.  
‘I’m going to give you some advice... if you want to get with someone, don’t pull out your gun and make like you’re the big fuck.’  
She rounded him and looked up briefly.  
‘And if you want to keep your fuckin’ arms, don’t ever threaten me again.’ She added icily before setting off towards the road.

Dum Dum felt hot all over. A white rage burning its way through his central cortex made him want to unload a full clip again. Before she could reach the road he span around, dazed with heat.  
‘I could make you scream, V! The offer is there if you ever get bored.’ His desperate and slightly maniacal voice echoed around the street.  
‘I’d have to be _fucking_ bored!’ She shouted back over her shoulder. He watched her turn the corner down the darkened street towards her car. Dum Dum kicked a trash can and yelled at the ground again. 

On his way back to All Foods he would murder in cold blood at least three innocent people; homeless, probably. It didn’t make him feel any better. That night he would lie awake, tormented by fractured feelings of want for something that he had no idea how to get. Dum Dum hated himself. Full of self-loathing and embarrassment, he plotted and fantasised. He thought about her mouth the most. Full, pouting lips. He wanted to take her jaw in his hand and feel them soft against his. His imagination ran wild all the way into the lonely night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My eyes! I’m blind! 
> 
> Okay, so here’s the angle. Hope it’s not too far away from how you see the character. And if it is, hope you like it anyway. 
> 
> Apologies for the usual things, plus the Wilson interaction - they could know each other, right?! He’s gotta find it somehow. Probably could have thought of something more imaginative but meh. 
> 
> Anyway, now for a lay down.

A shirtless Dum Dum kicked away from the desk he sat at and rolled across the floor of a dingy office space. He came to a stop at the side of a video camera that had been installed, the lens directed at a slightly odd scene. Crammed into the corner of the room was a make-shift film set, illuminated by a harsh spotlight that bleached half of the room. It was clear from the silk-sheet-covered double bed acting as the centrepiece that it could only be recording one thing. From the other corner of the room, a half naked girl walked into shot pulling a silvery blue wig on over her own short black hair. The little clothing she wore included a pair of PVC thigh-high boots with stiletto heels. The red lipstick she had recently applied glittered, the spot bouncing off of them and as she fiddled a little bit with her bra strap, she simultaneously puffed on a cigarette which hung out of her mouth.  
‘Okay. We’re fuckin’ rollin’,’ Dun Dum said to himself. Standing up and looking over the top of the camera he added, ‘uh, no cigs...’  
The girl frowned and stubbed it out irritably. She crossed her arms, peering at him before scratching her head.  
‘Why the wig?’  
Dum Dum looked up again from fixing the tripod in place. ‘Not paying you to ask questions.’  
‘So... you making a BD or a home video?’ She ignored him.  
He sighed. ‘Both. See what works.’  
‘You’re a freak arencha’,’ she said knowingly. ‘You Maelstrom boys are all freaks... Better have my eddies.’ The girl had a sort of nasally drawl that was already pissing him off.  
‘Yeah, as agreed you get your money after this thing is done. Now... your name is _V_ , okay?’  
‘Whatever, hun. Let’s just get this fucking over with.’  
Dum Dum inhaled. The creeping feeling that this was one of his not-so-bright ideas was slowly taking hold.  
‘Well... get your ass on the bed and... do your fuckin’ thing.’  
He watched her climb up and immediately turn onto her back, folding her toned legs. 

The unlucky girl was some Joytoy Dum Dum had picked up from Jig-Jig Street that afternoon. It had surprised him that she had come so willingly, even with the promise of a ton of eddies. It was a dangerous game to play agreeing to be part of a sex vid with a Maelstrom ganger, but the guarantee that it would only be the two of them involved seemed to alleviate any doubts. He had been on the look out for someone with a passing resemblance to V the whole week long. Heading back in the car with her, she didn’t actually come close to V he thought, not really, but her shape was similar and once the wig was on it wouldn’t be too bad a copy. A bit of clever editing, some expensive drugs and Dum Dum might actually be able to kid himself that the video he was about to record really did show him fucking her. He had the wild idea for a BD when V stopped returning his text messages after their last disastrous meet. At first he thought he’d get over her, especially considering he was fully certain he had blown any chance, if he’d ever had one, but the need was too great. She had this hold over him and the thought of making her his would not leave him be. Most nights he would dream about her. Pathetic, puerile dreams where she got so close to him but he was unable to touch her, his arms would just stick to his sides. Once he dreamt of her laying on a bed of what appeared to be rose petals - _never even seen the fuckin’ things before, apart from in old movies_ \- and watched her hungrily as she slid her own hands up and down her naked body. She would look out at him, knowing he was there, enjoying his frustration. Whatever the dream, he would always wake up the same way: with a painful hard on which although swiftly attended to, always left him feeling empty. The frustration would subside for moments before the longing started to build once more. His waking moments were spent imagining her in different positions, in different degrees of pain and pleasure. He especially liked to fantasise about her being tied up and helpless, or hanging from chains from the ceiling, sometimes wanting him, sometimes terrified. He felt that, in a fucked up way, he was getting his own back for the dream-torment that got him so hot and bothered at night. He was obsessed with her and nothing felt good. Work had lost its edge too. Killing and blowing stuff up used to be among some of his most favourite activities. He did still try to find some enjoyment in taking people’s heads off with an explosive round from his pistol, but somehow he just didn’t get the same kick out of it anymore.

The Joytoy didn’t waste any time in slipping her underwear off and he noticed her hum as she did so, almost like the act of disrobing was giving her some kind of physical pleasure. She then sucked her finger and started to stroke herself, followed by more fake moaning.  
Dum Dum stepped forward, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. ‘Uh... sweetheart. Don’t get me wrong, that’s hot, but... she wouldn’t do that.’  
‘Do what?’  
He paused and rubbed his face, pinching his nose. ‘Look, doesn’t matter-‘  
‘Who wouldn’t do what?’  
‘V... the girl you’re supposed to be.’  
‘Who’s V?’ She replied, more nasal than ever.  
‘For fu- don’t worry about it. Just... just try to make it realistic as possible.’  
The girl shifted and scowled at him.  
‘That’s... actually better.’  
He turned to check on the camera once more and then his own his own BD implant to ensure it was recording. All seemed operational. He moved back to the bed and started to undo his combat pants, watching her spread her legs for him. He knocked himself around a little but he only managed to get semi-hard. This didn’t feel very natural. She looked bemused at him and then at his dick. He did have some chrome down there, but it was purely to make it look fucking cool. He thought so anyway.  
‘Don’t just stare at it, you fuckin’ whore.’ He growled. She didn’t need telling twice. Flipping over on her stomach she crawled to the edge of the bed and gripped him. 

The second he felt someone else touch his cock other than himself he was immediately transported to that evening with V. When she had rubbed him through his leathers, and the way she had looked at him from under her eyelashes. All the while she stroked his dick, he was scanning her vitals. There was something seriously sexy about the way her heart beat that little bit faster when she had felt the length of him. That was undeniable, surely. Or maybe it was the gun to her throat. He took a moment to think back: her neck, her chest gently rising and falling, those lips. How much he had wanted to take her there, but like a clumsy little kid with a butterfly in his cupped hands, he couldn’t demonstrate even a degree of tact, or whatever it was required to ensure she didn’t get squashed between his fingers. 

‘Wow...’ the Joytoy purred below him.  
Dum Dum glanced down at the top of her head. She was now very much fixated with his fully erect penis. He half smirked.  
‘Where were you hiding that thing...’  
‘Sshhh...’ he hissed, pulling her head into his crotch. He kept looking down at the wig he had made her wear and tried to stay thinking of V. He wondered briefly whether she would have ever sucked him off. Did he want her to?  
_Stop this. It’ll ruin the BD. Just keep your mind on her and on V._  
He watched lazily as the toy licked and sucked at him. Every now and then he caught her looking up, possibly to see how much he was enjoying it and when she did, he would push her head down again.  
‘Keep your eyes on it, slut.’  
After getting into a rhythm he felt like he was really believing it. He had started to murmur “V” under his breath, very quietly. Once he was getting to the point of no return, he pushed her head away and she rolled backwards onto the bed. Dum Dum let his pants drop to the ground and he hopped onboard after her.  
‘Turn around,’ He ordered her, and then added, ‘V.’  
She had opened her mouth but then thought better of it, instead twisting onto her front and he quickly connected with her, taking himself in his hand and pushing hard at her opening. Once he had slid inside, with some encouragement, he felt an odd but not entirely unpleasant feeling. She was... vibrating... down there.  
_What the fuck._  
‘Uh... is that you?’  
He heard her annoying little giggle. ‘You like that, honey?’  
‘Uh... sure. But can you turn it off, it’s kinda’ distracting.’  
‘Excuse me?’  
‘I said, will you turn that off? It’s distracting.’  
She pulled forward and they separated. Turning back around to him, the first thing he noticed was her screwed up face and that her wig was slightly lop-sided.  
‘No - I can’t fucking turn it off...’  
Dum Dum gritted his teeth. ‘You are ruining this,’ he said purposefully.  
‘Listen man, I’m fucking made to do what I do. And I do it well. I have countless clients that can testify to it.’  
‘Con-fuckin-gratulations,’ He spat back at her, ‘do you have a guest book or somewhere I can leave a shitty review?’  
‘Fuck you, you fucking psycho. I dunno’ who this “T” is but you need to seriously get over it.’  
‘HER. NAME. IS. _V_!’ He bellowed, grabbing her by the throat and throttling her on the bed. The toy was scratching at his arms but he had lost feeling in those years ago. The thought of actually murdering her did cross his mind. She was so fucking annoying, and then at least he’d have a snuff BD to sell on - it wouldn’t all be for nothing. But after he watched her lips start to turn blue, he let her go with an infuriated growl.  
She gasped and coughed, shrieking with the effort of getting air into her lungs. ‘You... psycho...’ she spluttered. The girl quickly slid off the bed. He watched her gather up her things, pulling the wig off and throwing it at him.  
‘Don’t you wanna earn tonight?’  
‘Keep your fucking money.’  
‘Before you even think about it, don’t go cryin’ off to anyone... like the fuckin’ police,’ he snarled at her.  
She straightened up after pulling on her mini skirt. ‘Yeah? Why not? You nearly killed me.’  
‘I can do much worse than kill you. And you oughta’ fuckin’ trust me on that.’ He stared at her, his red mods focused, burning brightly.  
She opened and closed her mouth a few times, like a fish out of water.  
‘Get the fuck outa’ here!’ He barked. She obeyed, rushing out of the room but not before flipping him off as she slipped through the door.

Dum Dum sat naked on the bed and rubbed his hands over his face. He let the silence in the room consume him and focused on the static which he could always seem to hear when he concentrated hard enough. Well, it sure seemed like he’d finally hit rock bottom. The only thing in the world he wanted to do right now was actually see V. He was slightly concerned that the memory of her would be marred by that stupid Joytoy. What if dream-V was replaced with an annoying bitch in a wonky wig?

After evening had truly turned to night, he decided that he would take his chances with a midnight visit to V’s apartment. The truth was, he had no intention of her knowing he was there at all. Maybe he could at least catch a glimpse. If she wasn’t there, he could just mess around with her stuff.  
He left All Foods and jumped on his ARCH that was parked nearby, careful to be fairly inconspicuous as he left - he didn’t want anyone knowing where he was going - and sped off into the darkness. 

He knew where V lived - the apartment block at least - from the one time she had got him to pick her up from there. She had taken a ride on the back of his bike when her car was in the garage - much to his sheer delight. It was fairly close to the start of their little relationship, but he remembered tensing his abs as she stretched her arms around him and wondering if she noticed how ripped he was. She hadn’t said anything... not her style, he had guessed.

Dum Dum reached the entrance to the block and he swore audibly at the sight: the complex was heaving with people. He parked the bike and then made his way up the stairs, moving between the milling crowds to get past. He immediately recognised that he was receiving more than a few sideways glances from nosy gonks, and since there was almost certainly police in the vicinity, he dimmed his red-lights in a piss-poor attempt to seem less obvious. Akin to trying to bring down a Basilisk with a potato gun, that, of course, didn’t do a fucking thing. His disfiguring upgrades were usually an asset: people were generally scared of him. But he was rarely going on missions that involved “blending in”, and this little excursion proved the theory that it was a near impossible task for him. 

As he slid past one of the pop-up snack shacks he noticed someone’s hoodie on the back of one of the stools and after a furtive glance at the owner, who was busy with his face in a box of noodles, he swiped it. He reached the inside of the lift, jabbed the button to take him up to the apartment level and then took a closer look at his stolen item.  
‘Fuck, yeah.’ He muttered.  
The hoodie was black but the print on the back was in bold neon blue: SAMURAI. Dum Dum pulled it on, and by the time he reached the right floor, he had flipped the hood over his head. Now, to find out where she lived. He pretended to be looking for someone in particular, rather than appearing completely suspect and without direction. He saw that there was a little gun range which was open, and a vendor at the store opposite. Sidling up to the window, he tapped on the glass to get the guy’s attention.  
‘Hey,’ he said, and when the vendor turned Dum Dum did a little double-take and then scanned him to be sure, ‘Wilson?’  
The hulking, broad shouldered and extremely obese man squinted at Dum Dum for a moment. ‘Ah, Dum Dum! Long time no see! How ya doin’?’ He boomed.  
Dum Dum checked over his shoulder. ‘Preem. Didn’t realise this was your store,’ he responded, lowering his voice.  
He cast around with his arms shrugging, ‘I like it. Gets fucking boring sometimes but... Suits me. Plus I get to keep a check on the range, which can be fun - when people like you aren’t breaking all the fucking rules!’  
‘Aw c’mon,’ Dum Dum grinned, ‘so you’re not supplying the gang anymore?’  
Wilson took a deep breath. ‘Look, I just wanted a simpler life, man... and I don’t need the money. Better off going small-scale and keeping my sanity,’ Wilson picked his nose absentmindedly, ‘anyway, why the hell are you here?’ He flicked it behind him. ‘Wait, you’re not here to shake me down are ya? I tied up all my loose ends with Maelstrom...’  
‘Actually, I’m looking for someone’s place. You know V, the merc?’  
‘Of course I know V... you want her number or?’  
‘No, no... don’t need her number. I wanna know where she lives. I’m... paying her a visit.’  
Wilson’s brow furrowed instantly, ‘Is that right?’  
‘Uh huh.’  
‘I dunno, man. If she finds out I told ya... and you’re here to mess with her...’  
‘I’m not. We’re chooms.’  
He looked even more disbelieving.  
‘I... dunno.’  
Dum Dum stared at him.  
‘Okay, but I got your word that you’re not here to cause trouble?’  
‘Sure.’  
Wilson looked incredibly uneasy about it, but told Dum Dum where to find the apartment.  
‘I haven’t seen her come past, though!’ He called after him as he started off in the direction he’d sent him.  
The borg-in-the-hoodie quickly found the door to the flat and put his ear against it. It was perfectly silent inside. No one was home. Fuck, well, he’d come all this way. He scanned the keypad to his left. There was a pretty decent security system in place to keep people like him out, but he knew it could be breached. He stood there, hacking like mad. Every time someone walked past he had to make like he was just interested in a stain on the wall. Looking up, he suddenly saw a flash of greyish blue hair bobbing along behind a group of homeless gonks.  
_Fuck, are you kidding me?_  
At that moment, the door slid open. Without really thinking his next move through, he stepped into her apartment and shut the door.  
‘Fuckidy, fuckidy, fuck...’ he whispered under his breath, finding himself in what was essentially a square box with nowhere to hide. V needed to invest in a bigger apartment. Now, what to do... try to break some sort of hide and seek record or stay and face the music? Dum Dum was pretty sure that she would shoot him the second she walked in so... he decided he would take his chances with hiding. The day had gone so badly, how could it possibly get any worse? He ducked into an adjacent room to his right which turned out to be her armoury. Man, it turned him on to know she had a fucking armoury in this little shitty flat. Girl’s got priorities. He bent down and shifted himself behind a large metal case and the wall. It wasn’t going to save him from a proper search but would do for the moment. He suddenly thought how unbelievably embarrassing it would be if he was found there.  
He heard the door go again. She seemed to pause before walking into the centre of the room and he hoped she was checking out something on her phone. Dum Dum scanned her and then leant forward to watch, the glass door providing the perfect spying window. She was kicking off her boots, leaning on the wall opposite for support. He noticed fairly quickly that she looked like shit; her usually honey-coloured skin had become milky pale and was stretched over her cheek bones. After a moment he realised that her hair which appeared damp was actually matted with blood. He watched her touch it and stare at her own hand for a second. Maybe she was struggling without the back-up he had previously provided for her. Maybe she had taken a gig too many.  
In one fluid movement, and before he could properly prepare himself, she had pulled her little vest top off, wincing a little as she did. Dum Dum breathed the longing out of his chest. He thought he might burst. Her lean body was covered in bruises. Some were fresh; bright blue, others older and turning an olive brown. He would die to lick and kiss every single one. Although she was damaged, Dum Dum was sure he had never seen anything so achingly perfect. She pulled down her pants and stood for a while in just her thong, scrolling on her phone, and then, to his horror she started towards his hiding place.  
‘Fuck no...’ he breathed, sitting back and pushing himself as far behind the crate as possible. If she walked in, she would see him, no question. He held his breath, expecting her to enter any moment, readying himself with his pistol, but... nothing happened. Seconds passed. He heard the shower come on and puffed with relief. Moving back into position, she was now completely nude and staring at herself in the mirror. V turned her head from side to side and pulled one of her eyelids down to examine her ocular mod.  
He didn’t feel particularly guilty for watching her. If anything, the voyeuristic aspect amplified a sense of control that he had been sorely missing. He felt himself solid in his pants. Could he accost her like this? She was without any iron, nothing to protect her. It would be so easy to walk out there with his gun pulled and order her onto the bed. The anticipation of it made his mouth water. But then a memory of what she had said the last night he saw her came back to him.  
_Is that how you want it?_  
Yeah. Not really. He wanted her so much, but he still had a sick idea that she should somehow end up _enjoying_ him. Making her moan his name. Being completely helpless to waves of pleasure that he alone was responsible for. He had to get out of there, it was all too much.  
V finally pushed herself off the sink and walked into the shower and when she did Dum Dum immediately took the chance to leave his hiding place. He went to the door, but then paused before exiting... the computer.  
_Should I?_  
No, he shouldn’t, but he wasn’t in the habit of doing things he should, only things he wanted. Backtracking, he moved over to her computer and within seconds he had jacked in and was uploading spyware that, if undetected, would mean that he could watch her through the security system whenever he felt like it. The successful transfer flashed up on his interface and he disconnected rapidly. Then a sound came from the cubicle next to him that made his heart skip.  
_What..._  
The sound was so instantly addictive, so completely alluring that he couldn’t leave having not seen the sight that matched it. He thought he had heard that melodic sigh before. He hadn’t of course, but just imagined it a thousand times.  
Slowly, very gently, Dum Dum stepped into her bathroom, silent, ghost-like. He hardly believed his own recklessness but was urged on by adrenaline. In the mirror, through the steam, he was able to watch a strip of her reflection. V had her head pressed against the wall by the faucet. The water rushing down her back ran a bloody river into the drain at the other end of the shower tray. Her arm was snaking down her front, long fingers disappearing between her legs. Dum Dum gritted his teeth.  
_Oh, fuck, V..._  
She moaned out again, her elbow bending and straightening rhythmically. She was melting onto herself. He half unzipped his pants, fumbling a little in the heady delirium, and shoved his hand down to grip his cock. Mouth open in awe. Time slid away. Dum Dum wasn’t sure how long he spent helping himself to the sights and sounds of V exploring her own body, but it went on long enough for him to eventually come, hunched over, in his own fist. He had to bite his lip to ensure he didn’t join her in mutual groaning. The relief was like heaven, and efficiently suspended any potential shame that he might have felt. He knew he shouldn’t push his luck - luck having already been pushed to breaking point. Dum Dum gave her one last glance before walking out, fixing his pants as he went and as he got to the door he heard V climax. He grinned to himself as he made his way, without any real haste, to the elevator along the hall. 

Riding back to All Foods, he flipped his hood back and let the wind whip across face. He may have laughed, louder than the roar of bike. He felt more fucking sure than ever that he could cultivate this obsession into something real. He would have her. He didn’t feel like a king, far from it. He felt more like the first time he had held up a car or robbed someone at gun-point. This was just another aspect of his eroding personality. His complete decent. He knew what he was: a sicko. A fucking pervert. 

_So fucking worth it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I guess he’s got a pretty good BD to watch later. :3
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and comments x


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hello context?
> 
> Yet again, I have defied the odds by managing to write it all on my notes on my phone. Hoo rah - who else does that?
> 
> Apologies for the usuals, spelling, grammar, being alive etc.
> 
> I actually have a pretty good idea where this is going... HONEST. *Runs away*
> 
> Thank you for all and any support x

‘Hey, Dum Dum - you fuckin’ hearin’ me?’  
Royce snapped his fingers in front of Dum Dum’s nose.  
‘Yeah - I get it, Simon.’  
‘You think you’re being fuckin’ funny?’  
‘Sorry, _Royce_.’  
‘You will be. You been on the Lace again or something? Or all that chrome fucked with your tiny brain?’  
Dum Dum remained silent for a second and then he responded carefully. ‘Y’know me. I just like to ask questions.’  
‘You’re just as expendable as any of these other fucks. Remember that. Fuckin’ gonk.’ 

The two Maelstrom gangers stood face to face, breathing at each other. Royce was a good few inches taller than Dum Dum, and twice as wide. He jutted his chin out as they exchanged looks with equally dead-eyed mods. It didn’t phase Dum Dum. He knew that Royce wouldn’t want to lose one of Maelstrom’s most loyal sons. Their relationship, which had never been perfect, had become more strained over the past few weeks. Maelstrom were getting an honest battering from all sides. Rival gangs as well as the NCPD were ever encroaching onto their territory and more than once they had side-gigs completely obliterated by packs of hired mercs. The fact was, Simon ‘Royce’ Randall was feeling the heat. It had been barely months since he had taken over the gang from its previous boss, Brick, and everything seemed to be going to shit under his supervision. The gangers were getting restless. Royce was intimidating, he liked to come across as a psycho, but those in the inner circle had opinions on whether his bite was truly worse than his bark. Or at least, that he even had the intelligence it took to successfully run a gang like Maelstrom. Dum Dum was one of them. It wasn’t worth getting his head blown off though, which was why, for now, he would chow down on his shit sandwiches. On top of all that, it was fair to say that Dum Dum had been somewhat... distracted lately. 

The corners of Dum Dum’s mouth pricked upwards. If he’d still had the muscle structure surrounding his eyes to show it, he would have looked sardonic.  
‘Whatever you say, boss.’  
Royce nodded as though he had very much won the argument. The hulking borg shook himself a little and then spat on the ground at his feet. Dum Dum crossed his arms and watched him walk over to the office window to gaze out onto the warehouse floor.  
‘Get them all together. I got a plan.’  
‘What’s the plan?’  
Royce turned his head and grinned. ‘You wait. Then you can _ask questions_.’

Dum Dum assembled the crews downstairs and made sure that everyone there was sober, no mean feat with Maelstrom, who spent half the time whacked out of their minds. It was one of the reasons that Dum Dum joined all those years ago: the steady supply of some of Night City’s best recreational drugs. And time famously flies when you’re having fun. He had changed so much since his first initiation, and not just physically. It was easy to become numb to things that would crush the minds of regular people, if one is exposed to it for long enough. He had had his fair share of nightmares and sleepless nights of course, but now he recalled those damaging events, like where he had taken innocent lives for example, at a sort of distance. They echoed far off these days, rather than screaming right into his ears, and he had done worse than just killed. There were people he had maimed, blinded, and tortured to insanity. There were countless young girls he had sold to sex slavers: kidnapped from broken families and forced to fuck and suck old corpos until they wore out. He had lied. He had lied _so_ hard. He would say it was all going to be OK as long as they did what he wanted. He promised mercy. He always promised mercy. It never ever came. As Dum Dum got older, he didn’t grow out of doing things for kicks, not like other gang members. If anything, he got more addicted to the lifestyle. He loved the drugs, the sex on tap, the upgrades. It seemed he was dependant on becoming less human, more beast. And then he met V. It was the first time he had known of something in his life that he couldn’t just obtain. It was quite a subduing realisation for a man who had been convinced that the world was for the taking, so long as you had gun loaded and held at point-blank range. Did he feel changed? Kind of. He was having to wrestle with real feelings now and it was irresistibly pulling him back towards being human again. He worried what would happen when those distant echos started to become screams once more.

‘Shut the fuck up!’ Dum Dum shouted above the chatter as Royce came down in the elevator to start the meet with the All Foods Crew. He mostly got the reaction he wanted but then heard at the back of the warehouse a smattering of conversation and then some high pitched giggling. With his mods flashing angrily he shoved past the gangers to reach the source of the noise. The culprits turned out to be three young initiates, two boys and a girl. They were comparing guns, the guys pretending to shoot at each other. They would learn now that when silence was requested, it would be delivered. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t see Dum Dum coming. Without breaking step, he stretched his arm out straight and grabbed one of the boy’s heads, palm covering his face. The young man yelled out in pain and tried to pull away but Dum Dum’s cyberware meant that there was little chance of that happening. He could crush metal like it was paper, and bone proved no match. The kid fell to his knees and the girl dropped down beside him as his yells turned into panicked screams, his body starting to seizure.  
‘Stop! Stop! You’re killing him!’ She squealed as she desperately tried to pull at his leather jacket.  
Dum Dum found his fingers releasing the pressure. It was weird, he wasn’t sure he had fully decided to let him go, but before he knew it the boy was free of him and rolling on the ground. He stood above him with his hand out, fingers splayed.  
_What the fuck_.  
He came back to himself.  
‘I said... Shut up,’ He said quietly. Glancing around him, he noticed that the other gang members were looking at him strangely. Everyone was fully expecting him to crush the kid’s head, he supposed. Perhaps they wanted to see the show and were put out that he wasn’t providing them with any gore.  
‘What’re you fuckin’ looking at?’ He snarled as he stalked back through the crowd that parted for him, leaving the girl cradling her whimpering boyfriend on the ground.

When he got back to the front, Royce was waiting to hold court.  
‘What’s the problem?’ he asked, lip curling.  
Dum Dum shrugged and gestured for him to continue, lifting himself up to perch on a metal bar. He faced the crowd to keep an eye.  
Royce jumped onto a crate, then walked along some unused scaffolding and surveyed the masses below before beginning.  
‘Listen up you metalheads. I get there’s a little static here. Let’s call it teething problems. Maybe some of you aren’t pulling your weight. But don’t worry... I don’t blame you,’ he said mock-sincerely.  
Dum Dum noticed a few people shift in the crowd but not one person made a peep. Royce would have loved the opportunity to make an example of someone, just to show he was the big fuck, and everyone there knew it. They all kept their mouths shut.  
‘So... I’m willing to give you gonks another chance. Because I’m a nice guy,’ Royce paused, daring anyone to make a sound, ‘I’ve managed to get us in on a gig that could mean big things for us. Big, big things. If we pull it off, you’ll all be fuckin’ rich.’  
Dum Dum felt a ripple through the crowd.  
‘I’m gonna need all of you. Finer details still to be fleshed out, but we’re gonna take all our old supply lines back. By force.’ His red-lights flickered around the room meeting a murmur of approval. ‘We’re gonna make Night City rain blood. Everyone’s gonna get wet.’  
A few people clapped and whooped.  
‘We’re fuckin’ Maelstrom!’ Someone shouted from the crowd.  
‘Damn fuckin’ right,’ Royce snapped, ‘the NCPD have been sniffing around us for too long. No fuckin’ more!’  
The crowd echoed back obediently, ‘NO FUCKIN’ MORE!’  
‘The Mox used to suck our dicks, now they think they run the show. No fuckin’ more!’  
‘NO FUCKIN’ MORE!’  
‘The Valentinos wanna turn this town into one big fuckin’ Mexican street party. No fuckin’ more!’  
‘NO FUCKIN’ MORE!’  
‘And the Tyger Claws, man, they’re gonna wish they stayed in fuckin’ Jap-town, eating their fuckin’ sushi. No. Fuckin’. More.’  
‘NO FUCKIN’ MORE!’  
Royce grinned, pacing on top of the scaffold. Dum Dum could tell he was buzzing.  
‘Ok... ok... seems like you do wanna fuckin’ win after all. Alright. So, first of all we gotta get iron. Not just any fuckin’ gonk iron but serious shit. I’m talkin’ high-tech, high-caliber, and high-casualty.’  
He had the full support of the group now. Dum Dum could see people bobbing with anticipation.  
‘This is where the plan comes in. There are three special deliveries being made in three nights’ time. Got it? The loads are being sent to a Militech storage facility out of town. _Experimental weaponry_. That’s right, even they don’t know how big these things go bang yet.’  
More excitable chatter from the gang members.  
‘They’ve split the shipment into three convoys, and they’re coming from different ports. I guess they don’t want that much fire power being moved in one go. Whatever, we can cover all three, right?’  
The throng swayed and whooped and honked like animals.  
‘Right. You’ll find out what team you’re in by tomorrow night. I want everyone fuckin’ on it. No fuck ups.’ Royce took a deep breath, head likely spinning from the power surge. ‘If we pull this off, you can expect the biggest fuckin’ party at Totentantz that anyone has ever seen. Let’s make it RAIN, Maelstrom!’  
The room exploded. Dum Dum quickly slid down off of his perch and joined Royce as he made to return to the office upstairs. Everyone was patting him on the back as he pushed past and Dum Dum had to elbow a few people to get in beside him. He had to hand it to the fucker, he knew how to work a crowd. That was never in question. This would happen at least once every two weeks though, whether anything actually came of his bluster was still in question.

Once in the lift, along with a nasty fem-ganger called Patricia, Tommy and Kurt, Dum Dum started clapping sarcastically.  
‘Wow... well, shut my mouth.’  
Royce smirked. ‘Now you can ask your fuckin’ questions, you piece of shit.’  
‘Thanks. I have a few.’  
‘So do I,’ Patricia chimed in coldly.  
‘Let me guess...’ Royce said impressively, pointing at Patricia, ‘you wanna know what percentage you and your crew get out of this?’  
Patricia moved her hand up and pushed back her shock of red hair off of her forehead.  
‘Amongst other things.’  
‘Step into my office,’ Royce grinned.  
They walked through the door and took their places. Royce sat behind his desk. As he sank down he snatched up a cigar and lit it.  
‘All right...’ he took a deep drag and exhaled, pumping a smokescreen into the room.  
‘That was quite something, Royce,’ Patricia purred, ‘we appreciate it.’  
The man ducked his head in thanks, biting on the cigar.  
‘But now I wanna know the deets.’  
‘Shoot.’  
‘Who’s leading the three teams?’ Patricia asked, glancing around her at the boys.  
‘Me, you and Dum Dum,’ he answered without hesitation, ‘that fine with you?’  
‘Sounds ok. Now, the cut...’  
‘Listen, I don’t know exactly what they got in those containers.’  
Patricia’s half-face fell. ‘What?’  
‘I don’t know yet. All I know is that it’s weapons and they’re fuckin’ expensive... therefore we can’t come to an agreement on the cut until we have it in front of us, right?’  
Dum Dum smiled to himself, knowing the Patricia was frying in her seat.  
‘Fuck... Royce, how do I get everyone to agree to this if they don’t know what they’re fucking getting in the end?’  
Royce leant back in his chair. ‘It’s a question of trust, no?’  
She went quiet.  
‘If I can get those metalheads out there to follow me-‘  
‘Blindly,’ Dum Dum interjected.  
‘Fuck you, you piece of shit... But no, y’know, you got a point. They do follow me blindly. They’re fuckin’ loyal as long as I walk out there and give them what they want.’  
Patricia crossed her arms. ‘We cut it even.’  
‘Can’t agree to that yet.’  
‘We cut it even, or my crew isn’t in.’  
Royce tapped his cigar onto the floor, his mods focused on Patricia. His smile faded.  
‘All right. Patricia.’  
They all waited in silence for a moment.  
Patricia turned to Dum Dum. ‘You got any thoughts on this?’  
‘Royce knows what he’s doing.’ He said begrudgingly.  
‘Thank you,’ Royce responded, opening his arms.  
‘I just wanna know where this intel came from?’  
The bearded man regarded Dum Dum for a second across the table and then rumbled to himself, a chuckle so dark it made the others shiver.  
‘ _That_ is for me to know and you to find out, my choom.’

After the ‘conference’ was complete, Dum Dum returned to his quarters at the back of the warehouse. He felt exhausted. The nights’ held little rest for him at the moment. This new job on the horizon wasn’t going to make him feel any more at ease. He appreciated the fact Royce was doing _something_ about their predicament, but as usual the plan it self didn’t fill him with confidence. 

Once he had come in and locked the door behind him, he stepped over to the mirror on the wall to stare at himself. He found that he was doing this more and more. Examining every piece of chrome on his face, trying to remember what he used to look like. He was sure that maybe somewhere there was a picture of him pre-upgrades, but there was a part of him that didn’t want to see it. He still had his sharp jawline, his mouth which he had always quite liked, but his nose was almost gone now, sacrificed for his ocular mods. It used to be long, lupine, he thought maybe. Long and straight. He didn’t remember clearly. Fuck, he had to keep reminding himself of his own name. His real name.

Dum Dum flopped down in front of his computer just as a notification flashed up on the screen. It was all code but he knew what it meant. Logging in, he quickly opened the spyware connection with V’s security suite, and tapped the table impatiently as he waited for it to load. And then... there she was. He switched from the computer webcam to the camera in the corner of the room to get a better view of her. The camera was old, he guessed at least 30 years, and the picture wasn’t clear, but it was good enough. He was grateful for the fact she hadn’t taken it down, she probably thought it didn’t work.  
Dum Dum smiled to himself.  
‘Lookin’ good, V.’  
She did look good. He had seen her wounds heal and the colour come back to her over the past week. Amongst watching her do almost everything else. And when the live feed wasn’t enough, he checked into the BD he had made of her in the shower. At first he felt it was all he needed, but like everything else in his life, Dum Dum became desensitised. He had watched it so many times now that he longed for her to do something different. He longed to touch her. To hear her voice.

Dum Dum leant in to look more closely at her. V had walked over to her radio and switched it on, and then started to dance. He grinned. She was stripping off to the music, kicking one boot and then the other across the floor. Her bopping continued to the mini-fridge where she pulled out a beer. Someone was in a good mood. And girl could dance. He had a thought. Text her now maybe?

———  
V. HOW R U  
D  
———

He waited a few seconds and saw her, in real time, look at her phone. Dum Dum held his breath. And then, she started to type back. _Fuck._ He quickly looked down at his phone again, watching the dots roll, and suddenly stop. Glancing back up, it seemed V had carried on undressing, instead of finishing the text. He sat back in his chair and let his head fall backwards, growling at the ceiling. And then he heard a pop. He looked down.

———  
U don’t give up do u?  
———

Biting his lip hard, ‘No shit.’  
He tried to wait a few minutes before texting her back but it was impossible. He got to about twenty seconds.

———  
NOPE  
———

Dum Dum waited again, looking from the screen and back, screen and back. She was staring at her phone intently, still spinning around the room. 

———  
Gunna have to teach u a lesson huh?  
———

He laughed out loud. ‘Fuckin’ hell...’

———  
I GUESS SO  
———  
U would like that too much  
———  
HAD A GD DAY BY ANY CHANCE?  
———  
Maybe.  
———  
HAPPY 4 U  
———  
Thanks  
What r u up to?  
———

He paused, eyes rolling up to his screen. She was pulling off her bra.

———  
NOTHING MUCH  
U?  
———

On-screen-V picked up a bottle of beer and took a picture of it. Seconds later he received the pic. 

———  
Celebrating.  
———  
I SEE. U WANT SUM COMPANY?  
———  
Sort of in the nude here  
———

Dum Dum’s breath caught in his chest. He looked up. She sure was. She had climbed onto her bed now, staring at her phone. 

———  
PROVE IT  
———

He kept his eyes on her as he pressed send. She fucking _smiled_. Dum Dum shifted his junk in his pants, solid against his leg.  
‘C’mon, V...’ he whispered.

———  
U do not deserve that  
———  
PLZ  
———  
U are pathetic aren’t u  
———  
YH  
———  
Say ur pathetic  
———

He rubbed his face. ‘Such a fuckin’ cheeky bitch... I fuckin’ swear it...’

———  
FUCK. I WILL HURT U  
———  
Say it  
———  
U DNT NO HOW MUCH I WANT 2 HURT U  
———  
Say it!  
———  
U LIKE PLAYIN DANGEROUS GAMES  
———  
Ok no probs then c ya  
———  
IM PATHETIC  
———  
Yeah?  
———  
YES. PATHETIC GONK 4 U.  
———  
:)  
———

Dum Dum rubbed himself, his heart racing. There was nothing better than this. He felt like he’d just honked on a stim. The interaction he’d waited for. He lived for her riling him up.  
V held the camera down to her body and took a picture.  
‘That’s it.’ He muttered. His phone buzzed and he snatched at it off the table, but in his haste he ended up knocking it on the ground. He shot under his desk and flipped it round. V’s lithe body: tanned skin, breasts, stomach, everything in glorious high res. 

———  
FUCK V  
———  
U like that?  
———

Dum Dum stared at the screen, saliva filling his mouth. She was touching herself on the bed. She got off on this.  
‘Bad girl...’  
V needed a boyfriend. She jerked off more than he did.

———  
ID DO ANYTHING 2 TOUCH U  
———  
And what else?  
———

‘Fuck this.’  
He tapped on his phone and selected her number. V sat up, holding her phone out in front of her. Dum Dum pressed it into his ear. The seconds stretched.  
‘Hello?’ She had tried to sound off-hand, but he heard a delicate wavering in her voice.  
‘Hey,’ he replied, ‘thanks for answering.’  
There was silence on the line.  
‘You like fuckin’ with me, don’t you?’  
Another long pause.  
‘Yes.’  
‘Why?’  
‘I dunno... I guess I had too much to drink tonight.’  
Dum Dum puffed.  
‘Nah. That ain’t it.’  
‘Well... why do you think?’  
‘I think you like the idea of me fuckin’ hard for you.’  
She snickered quietly.  
‘Mmm... maybe.’ She had laid back down.  
‘You like that I can’t stop thinkin’ about you.’  
He leant forward. He could just about make out her hand sliding down her stomach.  
‘I couldn’t care less about you,’ she purred.  
‘Why did you message me back?’  
‘I dunno... in a good mood.’  
‘Why the picture?’  
She giggled. ‘D... so many questions.’  
He breathed heavily. He wondered whether he could make her play ball, but he was running out of ideas.  
‘So... you gunna answer _my_ question?’ V said gently.  
‘What... question?’  
‘I asked “and what else”?’  
Dum Dum grinned. With one hand he slid his pants down to his ankles.  
‘V... if I had you-‘  
‘How?’ She interrupted him.  
‘Well. First I’d fuckin’ gag you to shut you up.’  
He heard her laughing.  
‘How would you have me?’  
‘I get what you’re sayin’.’  
‘Yeah?’  
‘Yeah - I’d never have a chance unless...’  
‘Unless...’  
‘Unless I beat the shit out of you first... incapacitate you.’  
‘Mmm... that’s a big word, D.’  
‘Fuck you.’  
‘You think you could?’  
‘I know I could, you little bitch.’  
He heard her sigh.  
‘You’d have to try really hard.’  
‘I’m ready to.’  
She hummed gently down the phone.  
‘Sometimes I think how nice it would be to... just let it go, y’know? Just give up control.’  
‘I can help you do that, V...’ his voice almost lost to a tremor.  
‘D...’  
‘V...’  
He listened to her softly breathing down the phone. And then...  
‘I gotta go.’  
‘What?’ He sat up in his chair.  
‘I gotta go.’  
‘Ok...’  
‘I’m getting a call.’  
She hung up. Dum Dum watched the monitor closely. She lay there staring at the ceiling for some time and then she curled up on the bed, pulling the sheets over her head. He watched her long into the night and then when he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore he switched off the computer.


	4. Chapter 4

‘Hey, Dum Dum. It’s Patricia.’

The Borg had been at “work” that afternoon, even though he had promised himself a day of rest before the big gig the following evening. It hadn’t been an overly tiring day, but he had still been shot at by three different gangs and the police: not exactly the chilled one he had been hoping for. Once back at All Foods he had jobs to calibrate his weapons and then make sure that his team were hyped and ready for tomorrow. Having finally got back to his room, the expectation that he would now have time to himself sank when his phone had started buzzing. 

‘How’s it goin’?’ He turned the sound down on the holo, her mechanical voice made him want to stick pins in his ears.  
‘I need to talk to you about Royce.’  
Dum Dum sat down on his sofa and started to undo the clasps on his ballistic vest with one hand. ‘Listen, I can’t. You have your crew and Royce is my boss.’  
‘How did you even know what I was going to say?’  
‘I just... I can’t talk on here.’  
‘I’ve isolated this call.’  
He sighed.  
‘I made my fuckin’ bed, ok? When Royce took over, I sided with him. I wanted a little more power than what I had under Brick, so I helped him. My. Fuckin’. Problem.’  
‘I’m well aware of what happened, Dum Dum.’  
‘You don’t think it was right?’  
She inhaled. ‘It’s the nature of this gang. Always will be.’  
‘But we need some time to... acclimatise to new rule. Y’get me?’  
‘Royce is a sinking ship,’ Patricia retorted.  
He stayed silent for a long while.  
‘Dum Dum?’  
‘Let’s just fuckin’ see what happens tomorrow night, ok?’  
She persisted. ‘You want power, right?’  
‘Of course I want fuckin’ power.’  
‘I would support you.’  
Dum Dum froze. He thought maybe he hadn’t heard her properly. ‘What?’  
‘I would support you. If there was a take-over.’  
‘Patricia... you think I should run Maelstrom?’  
‘Mhmm.’  
‘What makes you think I would even wanna do that?’  
‘Think about it. That’s all I ask. And if it happens... I want Royce.’  
He heard rustling on the other end of the call, indicating she was about to sign off.  
‘Wait... what have you got against him?’  
‘Aside from him bein’ a fuck-up?’  
‘Nah, not buyin’ it. You got it in for this guy.’  
It was now Patricia’s turn to be silent on the line.  
‘I have my reasons.’  
‘Just tell me. Then I’ll consider.’  
‘He... took something from me. I don’t even think the fucker realises,’ her voice had become oddly strained. He heard her clear her throat.  
‘Well... fuckin’ klep it back?’  
‘Can’t. It’s gone forever.’  
Dum Dum rubbed his face and leant back in his chair. He stared at the floor.  
‘Fuck... we’re talking about a “who” not a “what”, ain’t we?’  
Patricia breathed. ‘Just think about it. Ok?’  
‘Sure.’  
They ended their call. Dum Dum sat there in shock for a few minutes. He tried to break it down in his head, make it more manageable. Patricia, who Dum Dum always expected wanted the top job, who he actually thought would have made a competent leader, wanted _him_ to take power. _Fuck_. What would that mean? He nearly shuddered at the idea of Royce somehow finding out about this. Fact was, he didn’t trust Patricia. He didn’t trust anyone. She could just as much be trying to set him up. And this story about Royce flatlining someone close to her... could all be bullshit. On the other hand, Royce was well known for obliterating people who got in his way, and most who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was definitely possible. But, couldn’t she do both? Why not take control and do away with Royce? Maybe she wanted to get him, Dum Dum, killed first, just in case the All Foods crew revolted. That was probably it. 

He got up and did the usual turn in front of the mirror, examining his lean body. Dum Dum eyed a purplish vein that ran down the centre of his bicep and disappeared into the crook of his arm. He touched it and almost flinched. It wasn’t a vein at all, but a solid tube, running just under his skin. It shouldn’t have bothered him; he had tubes and wires running in and out all over his body... but he was sure this had been a vein... once. He suddenly had a mad desire to remove it. Going to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, he found a scalpel and returned to his reflection. He took a deep breath and dug the blade into his arm. It was blunt and it required some force. Slicing down the length of it, he moved the layer of skin the side and managed to pinch the flexi-metal and started to pull. It didn’t hurt, but instantly the hand on that arm started to jump, fingers balling into a fist and then stretching out straight again, completely free of his will. He sighed. _Fuck me_. This tube was more a part of him than any vein on his body. It held the power to immobilise him, more power than any vein would have had. Was that even better?  
Blood was slowly seeping out of his arm and dripping onto the floor so he went to fetch some gauze, dropping the scalpel into the sink with a clatter. He wrapped himself up, and pulling the knot with his teeth he growled at himself for being so fucking dumb.  
‘What the fuck has got into you.’  
He sat down at his desk and automatically flicked on V’s security suite and accessed the cameras. He knew she wouldn’t be there, but he wanted to see her apartment anyway. She hadn’t been back for over a day now. Dum Dum got out his phone and typed out a text.

———  
HEY V  
HOWS IT GOIN  
———

He pressed send. 

******

‘Fuckin’ beautiful,’ Dum Dum nodded as he surveyed the equipment in the back of the lorry. He had leant out of the container door and grinned, ‘looks like iron to me, boys!’  
The group jeered.  
He jumped down and went back to the front of the truck where four mercs lay prostrate on the ground with their hands clamped onto the back of their heads. There was another dead by the road side.  
‘What shall we do with these?’ One of the gangers asked Dum Dum, his gun aimed at their backs. He shook slightly, itching to fire on them. His name was Trik, Dum Dum was unsure why. He was one of Royce’s men. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that Royce had wanted him with Dum Dum. He was a hot headed punk.  
Dum Dum glanced around. They were in the middle of nowhere. The dusty straight followed up behind them and in front of them, leading to god knows where. It was a good few hours drive back to Night City.  
‘Unload it, pack the trucks.’ He gestured at the lorry and went to walk away.  
‘And... the mercs?’  
‘Uh... just leave ‘em. They won’t be getting back from here all that easily.’  
The Maelstrom ganger frowned. He wanted to finish what he started.  
‘Dude... they’ve seen us. Royce said “no witnesses”.’  
‘Yeah.’ Dum Dum looked at the mercs on the ground. One was bleeding out from his ear and it ran down his face. ‘Whatever.’  
‘What’s your fuckin’ problem, Dum Dum?’  
‘There’s no problem,’ he growled back menacingly.  
‘Then why won’t you waste these fucks?’  
He tensed all over. Stalking up to Trik he snatched the assault gun out of his arms and unloaded onto the backs of the men on the floor. They jumped and shook, their bodies becoming full of bloody holes. After he had spent the entire clip he threw the gun back to Trik.  
‘Let’s get fuckin’ goin’.’

******

Royce barked with glee when Dum Dum reached the top of the stairs at the Totentanz VIP balcony.  
‘Here he is... man of the hour!’  
Dum Dum gestured to the men behind him. ‘We all did this, choom. You did this.’ He walked up to Royce with his hand outstretched. The other took it, and gripped him. When Dum Dum went to release however Royce didn’t let go. His mods were glinting at him menacingly. He felt Royce start to crush his hand a little.  
‘What the fuck’re you doing?’  
Royce kept him there for a second longer and then let go, laughing.  
‘Come, sit down. Someone get this gonk-fuck a drink.’  
Dum Dum tried to keep the scowl from his face. He felt the upgrade in his hand fizz and spit, the connectors on fire. He flicked his wrist.  
‘Nearly broke me, Royce,’ he said warily, sitting down on the sofa in front of him.  
‘Does. Not. Matter. We’re fuckin’ rich. Get it replaced.’  
‘Right.’ Dum Dum wasn’t sure what it was, but his instincts were telling him something was wrong.  
‘So, I hear everything went smoothly on your side?’ Royce sat down, stretching his legs out on the table in front of them. He kicked over couple of glasses. Dum Dum was about to answer him when he thumped the sofa. ‘Where are my FUCKING drinks?!’  
A dark haired girl who was waiting on the table had reached the top of the stairs, balancing bottles on a tray. She quickly moved over to them and placed them down. Royce was focused on her intently. Dum Dum watched her vitals jack up and her hands shake as she put down the last glass.  
‘Fuck me, you’re slow,’ Royce growled at her.  
She tucked the tray under her arm and went to turn.  
‘Uh, are you kidding me?’  
She stopped dead and looked back at Royce, her eyes starting to well. Dum Dum could see the strobes dancing off of them.  
‘Are you not going to ask us if we need anything else?’ He said in a mock-polite tone.  
She took a short breath in.  
‘I’m sorry... Uh... is there anything else I can... get you?’  
Royce rubbed his chin. ‘You’re new here, arentcha?’  
She bit her lip and nodded.  
‘It’s ok, what’s your name?’ he said softly. The voice made Dum Dum’s gut twist.  
After pause which made it clear she wanted to do anything but remain there and talk to Royce, she finally piped up. ‘Nelly.’  
‘Ah, preem. Who got you this gig, _Nelly_?’ He continued in that unpleasant voice.  
She looked like she was going to lie to him, her gaze rolling up to the ceiling for support. Dum Dum closed his eyes for a second and grabbed up a bottle instead, taking a long swig, hoping that once he set it down again Royce would have finished his exchange.  
‘My... my big brother.’  
Dum Dum sighed internally.  
‘Your big brother? Wow. So nice of him. What’s his name, this nice brother of yours?’  
‘It’s.. he’s Laurie.’  
‘Right. Laurie. I’ll remember that,’ Royce leant back and looked at Dum Dum, ‘Laurie and Nelly!’ He grinned at her, ‘well, keep up the good work.’  
She nodded her head and didn’t waste another second before spinning around and cantering back down the stairs into the club.  
Royce picked up a bottle and took a sip, watching the space where she had disappeared from.  
‘Fuckin’ bullshit. Hiring brain dead sluts in here now.’  
Dum Dum glanced up at him as if he had been absent the entire time.  
‘Uh, yeah... She’ll learn the ropes.’  
Royce turned his head slowly.  
‘Does seem a waste though, no? That she’s here. Fine, young girl like that could fetch a serious sum with the right buyer.’  
‘She’s obviously got family working here, or in the gang.’ He tried to sound off-hand but Dum Dum’s heart started to thud painfully.  
He didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt a great deal of responsibility for her. She, a girl he didn’t even know. This new feeling was making him feel quite sick.  
Royce stared at him. ‘You ok, Dum Dum?’  
He knew from the tone that it was pointed.  
‘Yup. I mean... sure. Sell her, whatever. Let’s just fuckin’ celebrate tonight, shall we?’ He held his bottle out to chink with Royce’s.  
His boss gave him a wide grin and then met him across the table.  
‘Have you heard from Patricia?’ Dum Dum asked.  
‘They should be here any second now. They had a little trouble with those mercs tailing ‘em. Had to double round a few times apparently, then hold up somewhere.’  
‘We had the same. Militech hiring bands of mercs to protect their assets... Almost like they wanted to distance themselves from the merchandise. And why no police?’  
Royce shrugged. ‘Fucked if I know. I guess they wanted it secret. Can’t trust the fuckin’ NCPD to keep their mouths shut.’  
‘Or their own soldiers?’  
‘Doesn’t matter. What matters is we got our hands on some fuckin’ preem gear.’  
Dum Dum lifted his bottle. ‘I’ll drink to that.’  
They both took a drink.  
‘Did you have any trouble?’ Dum Dum set his empty bottle down.  
‘Nothing we couldn’t fuckin’ handle. I hate fuckin’ mercs.’  
At that moment, more gang members came up the stairs. Royce stood and greeted them, roaring like an animal. Patricia followed behind them. He pulled her into a bear hug which she immediately broke out of. Dum Dum saw her mouth stretch thinly.  
‘Maelstrom, you beautiful bastards!’ Royce yelled at the group. 

A few hours later, everyone was in the swing of the party. The music was pumping through the club, most were high or horribly drunk. It was indeed the celebration that Royce had promised. Everything to excess. Dum Dum had been slightly distanced from it all. He hadn’t even touched a stim. His mind had been elsewhere. At various points in the evening he found himself looking at his phone, the text to V had gone unanswered. He needed to get over the whole idea. He was happier before.  
He leant on the balcony that overlooked the dance floor, watching the Totentanz ravers.  
‘Dum Dum... what’s up?’  
It was Tommy.  
‘Nothin’. Just enjoying the view.’  
Tommy leaned into him. ‘Listen. I heard somethin’.’  
Dum Dum looked at him, his eyes instantly moving to find Royce’s whereabouts before he responded. He couldn’t locate him in the crowd.  
‘What?’ He said seriously.  
The kid was fucked up. He held onto the bar for second before stumbling a little.  
‘Just... Royce is planning somethin’. I dunno what it is...’  
‘Fuck me, Tommy,’ Dum Dum whispered, yanking him away from the group. ‘What the fuck are you talkin’ about?’  
‘I just heard... I...’ but Tommy was cut short from making another sound.  
‘DUM DUM!’ Royce’s thundering bellow carried easily over the thumping trance. He stood in amongst the gangers, who were all looking around him.  
‘Come on... come! The man of the hour!’  
‘Why does he keep sayin’ that?’ He muttered to Tommy as he walked over to Royce.  
‘Dum Dum... all this... is thanks to you,’ He grinned nastily at him and spun around to the rest, ‘every fucker here owes this to Dum Dum.’  
‘Nah... team work,’ Dum Dum said, looking around at everyone. He noticed Patricia at the back of the room, watching closely.  
‘No, my choom. No, no. This is all down to you. Although, I can see how you might not realise that yet...’ Royce gestured for him to take a seat. He did, his fists clenching.  
‘I’ve got a little surprise for you, My friend. A gift. A thank you from me... to you,’ Royce bent down and punched him in the leg.  
‘What the fuck are you talkin’ about, Royce?’ He said, his jaw becoming tight.  
Royce gestured for everyone to move. ‘Everyone get the fuck out the way. I want Dum Dum to be able to see his present.’  
As the crowd parted, he spotted two of Royce’s men reaching the top step. They were dragging something behind them, he saw limp arms pulled up: a body. It was so dark in the club it was hard to make out any details, although it was clear whoever it was was in a pretty bad way, and it seemed like they were out cold. The gangers approached and dropped Dum Dum’s “gift” before the crowd.  
_Please, no._

He focused and scanned the body, but a creeping realisation was dawning on him.

‘Fuck me...’ he whispered to himself.

It was V.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a bit of extra time, but I am semi-happy with the way it turned out. 
> 
> This is getting a little Noir, guys. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and sticking with it. More to come if you like!
> 
> **** 
> 
> Just realised I should warn about the zero consent part. Yeah, it’s not even really dubious at the end just zilch - do tread carefully if that concerns you!!

It was like someone had cut the music. Dum Dum was suddenly deaf to everything apart from a pulse pumping in his ears. The lights, the voices too, all faded out. How could this have happened? 

Once he had mentally shaken himself, his immediate reaction was to scan her vitals. She was alive, barely. Her face was a bloody mess, clothes ripped and torn. Silvery hair plastered to her head with an inky blackness that Dum Dum knew must be her own blood. She sagged on the floor before entirely collapsing forward. It looked like she had been dragged behind a car. Her slender body that he had come to know so well in pixel form looked utterly wrong like this. He had to work to keep his face completely neutral, but in his head, there were explosions.  
‘Well?’ Said Royce, who looked like he had just taken twenty stims straight to the heart. He nearly shook with excitement. ‘I didn’t hear a “thank you”?’  
‘Uh huh. Is this supposed to mean somethin’?’ He said, a lot braver than he felt.  
‘Don’t give me that fuckin’ shit,’ Royce laughed menacingly and stalked over to V’s limp body. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling her to her knees. ‘I gotta say, she was much better looking before we got to her,’ then suddenly hurt, ‘oh... you not happy with your gift?’ His face instantly curling back again. ‘You’d still fuck her though, right?’  
‘I don’t give a shit about some beat-up bitch, Royce.’  
‘Really?’ He whispered. Suddenly he swiped his arm round and slapped V hard across the face. The force sent her sideways into the floor.  
Dum Dum didn’t move.  
Royce watched him closely, meanwhile the smack had caused V to wake up. She groaned in pain where she lay.  
‘What... what’s going on...’ she croaked, making a feeble attempt to move her arms.  
‘V... so nice to see you again,’ Royce purred, ‘I was just thanking Dum Dum here for the intel that made tonight possible.’  
‘What?’ V looked across the room and squinted at Dum Dum through swollen eyes, ‘...D?’  
Royce laughed out loud. ‘Ah, “D” - that’s fuckin’ sweet, guys.’  
The gangers joined in with whooping laughter.  
‘What do mean.. what intel?’ Dum Dum murmured.  
V tried to prop herself up but flopped again, ‘What’s ... he talking about? What ... what the fuck... is going on...’ her eyes rolled a little.  
Royce countered, looking down at her. ‘Just shush, sweetheart. You’re dying, and unless we get through this quick you’re not gunna make it. And although I expect he’d take you all same iced, he’d _probably_ prefer you alive.’  
‘Royce...’ Dum Dum snarled.  
Royce looked back at him. ‘Don’t fuckin’ “Royce” me,’ he breathed in, taking his time. ‘Let me tell you, V, why your gig tonight went so badly for you. Now, you payin’ attention? You see, someone... in the recent past... must have paid a visit to your apartment. Naughty, huh? Snuck in like a snake... or a rat. While they were there, they hacked into your home security system...’  
‘Royce...’  
‘LET me tell the story... I think that same person wanted to watch you, y’know, get undressed, shower, fuck, whatever personal stuff you get up to, anyway they must have really wanted to see you do it because that little gonk did it fully aware that they left an open channel for someone or anyone on their network to come poking around...’  
V put her head on the ground, her eyes still focused on him.  
‘You may have guessed who I’m talkin’ about. See, along with a connection to all the cameras in your apartment, V, which I’m sure our mutual friend has made special use of over the past few weeks, you could also, if you wanted, get into your emails. Isn’t that right, Dum Dum?’  
He felt himself breaking inside. But he couldn’t show it. He nodded slowly.  
‘D...’ V croaked.  
‘Turns out little V here was doing a pretty fuckin’ big job for Militech tonight. Shame someone got all the deets from her personal email. Wasn’t as secret as you thought, was it babe?’ He stooped down and moved her hair off of her face. She was too exhausted even to flinch.  
‘I hope it all makes sense now, Dum Dum. I mean I assumed you were gettin’ somethin’ out of those charity gigs you were doin’ for this bitch but I guess...’ he trailed off as the collective roared with laughter. ‘Anyway, by way of thanks, I thought we’d scrape her off the road and bring her back to you. My offering. You can do whatever you like with her. You could even pull out all her upgrades if you like, this girl is packing mods you wouldn’t believe... Of course, if you’re not into the idea of keeping her...’ Royce pulled out his gun and pointed it at her, ‘I could just end her now. Little bitch has had it coming, after all.’  
Dum Dum gritted his teeth. His world was spinning faster than he could keep up with it. He knew his backbone was itching that night, he knew something wasn’t right. He also knew that admitting the connection between them would mean Royce had sniffed out his weakness. On top of that, how would V even react to him after this? She would surely hate him now, she would wish he was dead. It was undeniably all his fault. Royce was right too, he had known it was an open channel on the network, but still it would have required access to his own computer to have known about it. Royce must have checked it, or someone did it for him. He wanted more than anything to act up that this was all bullshit, save face with V and the gangers, but that would mean V’s brains all over the club floor. What choice did he have?  
While bent down, Royce pushed the gun into the side of her head forcing her face against the ground. V closed her eyes.  
‘Stop... I’ll take her.’  
Royce started grinning ear to ear. He stood and holstered his gun. ‘I thought you might, dirty fuckin’ dog,’ he said quietly, nodding. He turned to the two gangers that had brought her in. ‘Get her back to All Foods, and get a ripperdoc out, want her patched up... oh, and see if he can remove some of those mods. I want her properly de-clawed before Dum Dum gets to play with her,’ and then to Dum Dum, ‘she’s like a little baby tiger, that one. You should have seen her tonight. Tough little fuck.’  
The two borgs snatched an arm each and hoisted her up so that her boots dangled off of the ground. 

So this was Royce’s way of demonstrating his strength, his power over him. He knew that he cared, he had sussed it out - whether he knew to what extent was still in question, but he knew there was something there. Now he had a slave of his own to look after, but he would have to treat her as Royce intended him to. He hadn’t had time to really think it through, but in the coming days he would surely speculate on why Royce had his computer looked into in the first place. Was it because he feared him? Did he fear his standing within the gang? The way the men looked up to him? Well, he’d certainly damaged that reputation tonight with a very public show of humiliation. Perhaps he had pushed him with his less-than-respectful tone at times. He would also have to consider whether it had anything to do with his call with Patricia. 

After the crowd had somewhat dispersed, Royce rounded on him. ‘Look, I’m sorry to show you up like that, choom. Y’know, I just love an audience. Fact is, I really couldn’t have done this without you. I mean it, I’m not being a cunt. I don’t mind sayin’ that things were getting tight for me for a sec there... now, I’m fuckin’ worshipped.’  
Dum Dum leant into him. ‘You fuckin’ hacked my computer.’  
‘We share in this gang, choom. That includes all intel. You know that.’  
‘It wasn’t fuckin’ _intel_ , Royce, I’d never even looked at her fuckin’ emails.’  
Royce stared down at him, the corner of his mouth pricking. ‘Well, maybe you shoulda done.’  
‘Nah.’  
‘Fuck me, Dum Dum... you two get kinda’ close on those charity gigs or somethin’?’  
‘Don’t be fuckin’ stupid.’  
Royce kept focus on him for a few seconds. Dum Dum knew he was scanning him.  
‘Huh... ‘cause you know how dangerous that would be with somethin’ so...’ he cast around for a word, ‘...transient. We’re the ones that fuckin’ _live_ , everyone else, everyone outside of this gang... is fuckin’ dust. Right?’  
After a pause he nodded.  
‘Yeah. I’d hate to think you’d forgotten what being a part of it is all about,’ Royce thudded him on the shoulder, ‘that would be a real fuckin’ shame.’  
Dum Dum watched him move back to the braying masses, downing a shot that was offered to him. He felt sure that there was a veiled threat woven into his words. 

******

A little later on, Dum Dum had arrived back at All Foods. The sun was coming up, dying the sky a sickly yellow, and as he parked his bike, he took a moment to gather himself. There was nothing he could think of, nothing he would be able to say to her. A part of him still thought whether it was all worth it, but he was finding more and more that his personality, degraded though it was, pined for a kind of vindication. He had never needed that before. The Dum Dum that had put holes in the mercs, or the one that bought and sold in human slaves, or the one that drug pushed to vulnerable people, the Dum Dum that had, with his own hands, sliced up bodies still alive to retrieve their upgrades - that Dum Dum wondered whether he shouldn’t have let Royce ice V in the club. The other part of him feared for his soul. It was the beginnings of a separation, or a distancing within his own mind. Why it was happening now, of all times? The only answer he could find when he searched himself, the only variable that had changed: V. 

He made his way through the warehouse, feeling incredibly light-headed, and took the lift down to the basement level. Steering away from his usual route to where the shabby living accommodations were, he instead went down another collection of steps, and then another until he was deep within the belly of the building. Dum Dum hadn’t been to the “Clinic” for a while. It tended to be where more junior gang members were enlisted to carry out their jobs, as the tasks at hand were always both messy and highly morally objectionable. He still remembered his time spent down here though, those memories don’t die easily. The gangers had a whole floor above dedicated to providing space for those who went under the knife in the search for cybernetic perfection. This lower basement floor was strictly for dealing with “outsiders”. It was a nightly horror show. It was where, within one of the operating theatres, he knew he would find V. He hoped that Royce had hired half-decent ripperdoc.

Dum Dum passed through some double doors and walked by a young initiate who was hosing the floor down. He was trying with futile effort to encourage the giant puddles of blood into the drain.  
‘You seen someone brought through here, couple of hours back?’ he asked the kid, and then when he was met with a blank stare, he spoke again, ‘a girl? She was in a fucked up way.’  
The kid didn’t speak but nodded down the corridor to his left. As the neon red light on the wall caught his eyes, Dum Dum saw they were wide and bloodshot.  
‘What’s your shift?’ Dum Dum asked him, hanging back.  
‘Ten til four am, Sir...’ he said, his voice cracking from underuse.  
‘It’s five-thirty...’  
‘Oh,’ he looked slightly awkward.  
‘Get outa’ here. Get some rest.’  
He dropped the hose and padded off down the hall, his boots making squelching noises as he went.  
Dum Dum continued through the corridor and finally stopped at a room that had artificial light pouring out of the little viewing window. He pushed the door and entered quietly. A man stood hunched over the chair in the centre of the room, obscuring most of V’s body. He could just about recognise her bloodied legs and her boots with the laces undone. In the corner, leaning against the wall, was one of Royce’s lackeys, the same one that had taken her from the club. He cleared his throat and the ripperdoc turned around. The red-eye mods of the ganger also focused on him.  
‘You must be Dum Dum,’ the ripperdoc purred, ‘I don’t think we’ve met.’  
He was a strange looking man, most ripperdocs were, especially the ones that worked with Maelstrom. He had long black hair that was parted in the middle and what looked like a hair lip or a pretty decent scar above his mouth. His eyes were completely pewter, whites and all. He wore a long surgeon’s gown that didn’t appear to have ever been cleaned.  
Dum Dum nodded to him. ‘Are you a... doc?’  
The man let out high pitched laugh. ‘Yes... don’t worry, your property is in good hands.’  
‘My property...’ he repeated back at him slowly.  
The ripperdoc gestured for him to come forward.  
‘I see myself as more of an artist, to be honest with you.’  
Dum Dum stepped towards him and moved around the side of the chair. V was still covered in dried blood, but the cuts and the lacerations to her skin were almost entirely gone. Her beautiful face was pale, but untouched.  
He breathed out with surprise. ‘Pretty impressive.’  
‘She’ll need time to heal properly, and she’s had some serious cyberware removed like her optics, her arm upgrades, general processor has been downgraded. She’s basically harmless now. It’ll be just like overpowering a normal woman.’  
Dum Dum’s muscles tensed slightly.  
The ripperdoc seemed to sense his unease. ‘She’ll need bathing of course... but I’m sure she’ll shine up like a brand new enny,’ it didn’t illicit the response he was looking for so he tried again, ‘is there... anything else I can do? Your boss instructed I was to amend to your liking...’  
‘No. You’ve done enough. Thanks.’  
‘Of course... we just put her back in her whatever she was wearing, I hope that’s alright...’  
Dum Dum put his hand to her forehead.  
‘When will she come round?’  
‘Oh, she’ll need some rest, but if you can’t wait... like I said, there’s nothing she can really do!’  
‘How long does she need?’ Dum Dum growled.  
The ripperdoc stammered, clearly confused by his reaction. ‘W-well, I would suggest that... she will feel better in a day... or two. There may be some disorientation or confusion, some nausea. It will be quite a while before she adjusts to being... well...’  
‘Inferior,’ he whispered.  
In the corner of the room in the half-dark, the ganger shifted. Dum Dum gazed up at him and kept his stare for a moment.  
‘Well, she’s ready to go, I’m just about done here,’ the ripperdoc said, wiping his hands on his gown. ‘This is for you as well. Standard stuff really for keeping them pliant. You’ll recognise it,’ the man held out a small bottle of clear liquid for him to take.  
‘Right,’ he said quietly.  
‘One shot.’  
‘Yep,’ he took it from him gingerly. He knew exactly what it was. He’d used it countless times. A little bottle of shame.  
He realised that the ganger had moved forward to the chair, leaning in to take her by the arm. Dum Dum knocked his hand off of her.  
‘I got it, thanks,’ he moved into his space and carefully lifted her up. V’s poor head fell backwards exposing her neck. Her knees bunched together in the crook of his arm. He held her close, just looking down at her for a moment. It was quite surreal to finally touch her.  
‘Royce said I should-‘ the ganger started, but he cut across him.  
‘If you want to come with, then fuckin’ come with... but you don’t touch her anymore,’ he whispered darkly, still staring down at V.  
They left the room with the ripperdoc scratching his head at the slightly odd exchange, and carried on in single file back upstairs to the living quarters, Dum Dum leading the way. He kept looking down at her. 

Coming along the hallway, he could see at a distance the door of his room was slightly ajar. He stopped and stood for a second under the strip lighting, listening to the sounds coming from inside. First murmurings and then loud clanging. After turning slightly to check on his shadow, who was still very much there, he moved forward and kicked the door wide. Two Maelstrom gangers were hunched in the corner of his room. One had a soldering iron in his hand and the other was knocking a metal plate into the wall. As Dum Dum reached the middle of the room he realised that Royce was sitting on the sofa.  
‘What’s up...’ Royce smirked as Dum Dum moved straight past them to place V on his bed. He let her down as gently as he could. It was an entirely new experience: being careful with someone.  
‘Hey... what’s...?’ He nodded at the two gangers making a lot of noise.  
‘Don’t want her running around, do ya? When you’re not here? I certainly fuckin’ don’t,’ Royce leant back on the sofa.  
As Dum Dum stepped towards them and looked more closely. He saw what they were doing. They were running a heavy metal link up through the wall and back down it, fixing it with bolts. It was to keep her fucking chained up there.  
‘Mag-cuffs... high powered magnets. I have it on good authority that it’s the only way to keep ‘em,’ Royce nudged the “cuffs” on the table with his foot, ‘wanna try her out?’  
Dum Dum looked to V laying on the bed. ‘Don’t think she’s going anywhere any time soon.’  
Royce looked over at her and laughed. ‘Fuckin’ right. Man, she’s in for a fuckin’ headache. Looks like the doc patched her up?’  
‘Yeah,’ he muttered, sitting down in the chair by his desk.  
‘You’re welcome?’  
He didn’t speak but jerked his head a little by way of a strained thank you.  
‘She took five or more with her last night. Head shots. Saw it with my own eyes. Killer-bitch.’  
Dum Dum nodded.  
‘Not any fuckin’ more, though. Remember when she put that gun to my fuckin’ neck, at the flathead pick up?’  
He remembered like it was yesterday. That whole episode. Dum Dum recalled in detail the first time he heard her voice and saw her on the intercom. When she had come up in the lift with her buddy, and he had met her at the door. To him, no Joytoy, no doll in all of Night City had compared to her. He had wanted the entire gig to go off, just so he might have had the chance to fuck her up, and then fuck her too. That was back when the need was only nefarious. It took some time being in her badass company for those feelings to grow into something more... real. Back then, he would have jumped at this chance presented to him now.  
‘Yeah... she was quick. But she helped us. I dunno if we’d have beaten back that Militech squad without her...’  
‘But she fuckin’ humiliated me,’ Royce said firmly, leaning forward, his mods burning. ‘No one gets away with that,’ he stood up and walked slowly over to V.  
‘Y’know after you’re done, I might see what I can rinse out of her. I wanna find out how far someone like her can be pushed. Watch her go insane,’ he touched her bare stomach.  
Dum Dum held his breath but tried not to move.  
‘Somethin’ to look forward to,’ Royce said to him, his half-face breaking into a grin.  
‘Sure,’ he watched Royce move back into the centre of the room.  
‘We share everything, right?’ He knew he was playing with him. Could tell from his pumped up vitals.  
‘What makes you think there will be anything left?’ Dum Dum said, staring up at him.  
Royce paused and then chuckled. ‘True. I nearly forgot who I was fuckin’ talkin’ to for a second there,’ he turned and barked at the gangers. ‘C’mon you fucks, that’ll do.’  
They followed after Royce who swept out of the room. The ganger who had played guard was the last to leave. He had given Dum Dum one last glance. Dum Dum waved sarcastically at him as he closed the door. He immediately got up and locked it behind them. Turning, he put his back to the door and sighed out, long and drawn. It rattled in his chest and he felt his muscles ease a little. After chugging a gallon of water, bottles tossed on the floor, he pulled off his clothes, stripping until he was down to his underpants. Unable to focus on his bed time routine any longer, he gazed at V twitching on the bed. Silently, he went over to her and when he was close as he could be, he simply stood and stared. Her tattered vest was pulled up exposing her toned stomach, caught just underneath her breast on her right side. She wore combat pants that were little more than rags now, one leg split right up to her hip. He could just make out her underwear beneath... Dum Dum’s red mods flickered. He started to pull off her boots, one, then the other, and placing them at the bed-side. His red-lights slid back to her torso, up her legs. A natural chemical reaction was tugging at him from inside. He felt it run from his behind naval up into his brain as if they were connected by one short wire. He was suddenly hot all over. She was here, her body, the thing he had craved for weeks. All those hours spent imagining the texture of her skin. It had finally come to him. It was like a sign... he may never get the chance again. A dark version of himself, the real one, flexed.  
He put his hand out and allowed his fingers to brush against her exposed thigh. She twitched again. Dum Dum took a breath and then lay his palm flat on her skin. What bliss. He stroked her leg, taking time to get used to the feel of her. The little tiny imperfections, the smallest detail. He gently moved closer to her, higher up his hand massaged, his breathing harsh now. Voices were echoing in his head but his mind was so stretched from the nights’ ordeal that there were no motor responses to them. He finally paused before the boundary of her underwear, the seam at the very tip of his index finger. He remembered her in the shower. A flash back of epic detail: the water, the blood, her slender hand and fingers disappearing within herself. He swallowed. Lifting deftly the fabric millimetres from her skin, he slid his middle finger underneath and met with smooth, damp heat. He kept his gaze there, not wanting to look at her face. Was that shame? Or was it a mechanism to maintain this any way he could... In a tiny movement, one that seemed to whisper where every other event that night, every other conversation, every gun shot had had blared with resounding, ear splitting volume, he had moved through her. Bending very slightly, he dared to feel her from the inside. It was a sacred place and to him, the heretic, the barbarian, his reaction to it was all he knew. He used just one finger to break her open. The heavy but entirely soft surroundings required gentle force. His mind wandered to other tactile sensations that she could provide him. As he twisted his hand, palm facing the ceiling, she let out a liquid sigh that immediately jolted and tore him from the act. He stood straight, stepping back from the bed and watched her eyebrows carefully unknot themselves.  
‘Fuck...’ he scolded himself, ‘fuckin’ sick fuck.’ He put his hands up and rubbed his head, hunching over for a second in frustration, in disbelief at what he had done.  
_You’re everything she thinks you are..._  
‘I just...’ but he stopped himself. He would not converse with this other part of his own personality. He would not let himself off the hook that easily. To blame a section of himself would only mean forgiving the other. He knew what he was... there was no defending it. Had he rushed to free her already? No. Had he stopped the ripperdoc cutting out her implants? No. He couldn’t even wait for her to be awake before helping himself to her body.  


_Don’t deny it. It’s what you’ve always wanted..._

Dum Dum was trying to calm down when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. The skin stretched so tightly over his muscles made him look like a tarot-card demon. A living monster. He was still solid, his erection pressed up against his stomach and at the tip a round slick patch where he had leaked uncontrollably in anticipation. Dum Dum stood up tall. His chrome was glinting under the dim light in his room. He flexed his arms.  
‘Fuck it then...’

Maybe he was too far gone anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New notes: I was listening to some RHCP while I wrote this, in particular I Could Have Lied. If you haven’t heard it (most of you probably have) go give it a listen. 
> 
> Cheers! N x


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cor, blimey! Sorry for the wait. I realise that what was going to be a vehicle for meaningless smut is turning into a proper story, which means I do have to think before I write it. Stupid story!
> 
> I hope I have successfully appeased you, gods (readers) of my fic. 
> 
> More to come if you want! 
> 
> Cheers!

‘You want a drink?!’  
‘What?!’  
‘Do you want a drink?!’

Dum Dum watched the Maelstrom girl make an action with her hand, as if bringing a cup to her lips. She was attractive, in ganger terms. White blonde hair tied in a braid trailing down her back, shaved at the sides and although her eyes had been replaced with red mods, making the usual statement, she still had an inviting lipsticked-mouth with piercings on her upper and bottom lip. Her straight nose had those sharp little nostrils that flared when she was excited or angry. Her name was Pandora. At one time the two of them were in some form of a relationship, as in, they would fuck on the regular. He had forgotten the amount of times he stood against her door on a particularly heavy night and she had let him in for sex. For her it was possibly a little more based in reality. Those visits had dried up around the same time Dum Dum had started hanging out with V, which had not gone unnoticed. She had given him some distance since then. He expected she was pretty cut up about it, but he couldn’t really say that he cared very much. That evening when he had got to the club she had made a beeline for him, seeking him out in the crowd. He could tell she was sparked up and quite drunk but let her lead him to the bar anyway. 

‘No,’ Dum Dum responded, shaking his head firmly.  
‘You’re a dick!’ She shouted back. ‘Why won’t you have a drink with me?’  
He leant in to her. ‘I’m working tonight,’ he said as loudly as he could.  
She rolled her eyes and ordered two whiskeys anyway.  
‘Have it!’ She pushed the glass at him.  
‘Thanks, maybe later,’ his mods had caught sight of Tommy looking over the balcony upstairs and peering at the crowd. ‘Look, I gotta go,’ he said, patting her arm and starting to move away. But as he went to turn she suddenly grabbed his wrist.  
‘What’s so fucking good about her?’  
She clearly knew about V. Pretty much everyone did now, he guessed.  
‘Pan, this ain’t the time.’  
‘Fine,’ she let him go, ‘I just wanted you to know that I’m getting out.’  
He paused. ‘What?’  
‘I’m fucking getting out of Night City. I hate it. I’m gunna go!’  
‘Right...’ he said, still distracted by Tommy who he was sure was searching for him.  
‘That’s it? That’s all you have to say?’  
‘I’m sorry, I gotta get upstairs.’  
‘Sure,’ she said flatly. He left her alone at the bar.

The music in Totantanz was particularly chest-thumping that night. Tinnitus were playing and the club was filled with ravers in the throes of drug-induced euphoria. The dance floor shook with a rhythmic base that felt like a giant heart beating unrelentingly, buried beneath everyones feet. He didn’t need alcohol for this evening, in fact, he was searching himself for some kind of stim that might get him jacked up just enough to see him on his best form. The boss had called a meeting at Totentanz, just days after the heist that saw Maelstrom come into some apparently serious Militech weaponry. He hadn’t spoken to Royce or the others since then. The last two days had been spent looking after V’s comatose body for the most part. The ripperdoc had been bang on with his estimation. He had just about managed to get her to use the toilet and had semi-successfully squeezed smoothie down her throat in an attempt to get some food inside her, aside from that she had been quite dead to the world. There were a few fleeting moments of speech or movement and then back to being limp again. Whatever Royce had done to her, she had clearly come close to death. He didn’t mind looking after her, of course. On the contrary, he found her fascinating and entirely beautiful even whilst unconscious. He had already viewed her from every angle as if she was a classical sculpture of some ancient goddess. Dum Dum had been unable to shake the memory of when he given in to temptation and touched her intimately. At the time, he found he simply did not have the restraint to resist feeling her, even just once. Nor, at first, did he feel especially wrong about doing it but after some hours considering his actions, he decided that he wanted her awake. He was still wrestling with himself, his internal dialogue locked in constant battle. Did he take the risk, let her regain consciousness and face her hatred towards him? Or should he consume all he could while she was completely out of it? Fact was, he lived for her movement. It was the way she used her body that had built his obsession. Her voice had sealed it. He wanted these things more than anything. So, he would gamble and if she did want to put up a fight when she woke, then he would enjoy that too. The only thing he did allow was when he had spilt yoghurt down her chest and over her neck whilst trying to get her to eat. There simply was no other option other than to lick her clean.

Dum Dum ran up the stairs and quickly found Tommy on the balcony.  
‘Shit, choom - I thought you hadn’t got the message,’ the ganger said, nodding and thudding him on the shoulder.  
‘No. All good. I’m here.’  
‘So is Royce. In the office.’  
‘Right. Who else?’  
‘It’s just... you two.’  
‘The fuck? I thought it was a group meeting.’  
Tommy shrugged but Dum Dum could tell he looked concerned.  
‘I’ll come with. If he asks me to leave then I will.’  
‘Are you sure?’ Dum Dum felt a surge of appreciation for Tommy. He always stuck with him.  
Tommy nodded and they proceeded to the corridor beyond and followed that round to the office.  
Dum Dum wasn’t sure what to expect, and as usual he felt very much on the back foot. It was just Royce’s way of keeping him on his toes.  
‘Hey fuckheads...’ Royce purred as the two of them walked into the room. He was seated behind the desk where the manager of the club usually sat, his feet up on the table. He looked like he was already on his third cigar. Royce wasn’t entirely alone. The two knuckle-heads that had taken to being his personal guards were standing behind him.  
‘What’s up,’ Dum Dum said, walking straight for a chair opposite him and sitting down.  
‘You brought a little friend? How ya doin’ Tommy?’  
‘Good thanks, Boss.’  
‘Nice,’ Royce grinned, smoke billowing out from between his teeth.  
‘So...’ Dum Dum said, sitting back in the chair and crossing one leg over the other. ‘What’s goin’ on?’  
‘Uh huh. Business,’ Royce appeared to suddenly change his demeanour, stubbing his cigar out lightly in the ashtray in front of him. ‘This is pretty hot information, I’d rather he gets gone,’ he gestured at Tommy.  
‘I want him here,’ Dum Dum said quickly.  
‘Romantic. Speaking of which, how’s the merc-slut? She up yet?’  
‘Not yet.’  
Royce chuckled. ‘Don’t expect too much. Her brain is probably mush.’  
‘Maybe. She has moments...’  
He watched the borg consider his own fist for a moment. Royce was certainly sitting on something again.  
‘But seriously, I don’t want this getting out...’ he eyed Tommy again.  
‘He’s totally trustworthy. Anything I know, he knows too.’  
Royce dropped his legs and pulled himself forward. ‘Okay...’ he said slowly. ‘We got a fuckin’ problem, man.’  
‘Go on.’  
‘It’s the Militech iron. None of it is... operational.’  
Dum Dum frowned. ‘What does that mean?’  
‘It means it doesn’t fuckin’ work. They don’t fuckin’ shoot, they don’t go bang. I’ve had these guys look at them... they just... don’t work,’ he felt the back of his head.  
‘You mean they’re broken or...’  
‘I. Don’t. Fuckin’. Know. Fully loaded. I’ve had someone try to take one apart but this shit is like... Alien-tech, dude.’  
Dum Dum rubbed his face and sank a little in his chair.  
‘Anyway,’ Royce tapped the desk to get his attention. ‘We need to shift this gear or we’re fuckin’ screwed.’  
‘How are we gonna sell broken gear, Royce?’ Dum Dum stared at him.  
‘Why do you think I fuckin’ called you here? It wasn’t to ask me stupid questions. Obviously, we’re going to need to think about this carefully. Maybe we can get something from the Scavs... they’re a bunch of dumbasses.’  
He sighed deeply. It was typical that a gig Royce had fixed had gone totally wrong for them. Just when Dum Dum thought they would have a period of certainty, the pressure was back on.  
‘Dangerous dumbasses,’ he muttered, getting up from the chair and walking to the blacked-out and likely bulletproof window that overlooked the nightclub below. ‘Fuck me, Royce. Does Patricia know?’  
‘Oh, sure - yeah, I told her right away,’ Royce held up an invisible phone to his ear, ‘I said, “hey babe, y’know that gig where you lost a handful of buddies and cut a deal for half the take, that one? Well, it’s worth fuck all.” No, of course I fuckin’ didn’t, gonk. And she better not fuckin’ hear about it either,’ he snarled, moving his head in Tommy’s direction.  
Dum Dum cracked his knuckles as he tried to think.  
‘Let’s try our in with the Scavs. We need to start small though, some low level fucks. Anyone with a brain cell will smell a rat.’  
‘Good.’  
Tommy moved forward. ‘I think I know a group we can case. They’re scum but shouldn’t be an issue if things got out of hand.’  
‘Fuckin’ preem,’ Royce said, relighting his cigar. ‘See, his guy is helpful,’ he chided the two gangers that stood behind him. ‘So.. uh... how much do you think we can hope to make?’  
‘As long as we can shift it and make it out alive, I would consider it a big win,’ Dum Dum crossed his arms, turning to look pointedly at Royce.  
‘Hey, choom - this isn’t my fault.’  
‘It never is, Royce.’  
‘Fuck...’ he sucked on his cigar. ‘When did you get so fuckin’ negative, Dum Dum? You’re not still butt hurt about the other night...’  
He gritted his teeth. ‘You don’t seem to realise that it has everything to do with this. If you had kept your fuckin’ nose out of other people’s business, we wouldn’t be in this shit.’  
‘I _knew_ you were gunna say that. Newsflash, gonk - we were still in the shit pre this gig. Man, you’re fuckin’ petty as fuck. Besides, aren’t you happy with your little arrangement?’  
Dum Dum stayed silent.  
‘Exactly. We all got what we needed, so shut the fuck up.’  
‘How is this what any of us needed? We’re Militech’s most wanted, we have two tons of extremely hot iron that don’t work just sitting in a storage unit licensed to us, and on top of that the guy in charge has no fuckin’ clue what to do next.’  
Royce flicked his pistol out with such speed that Dum Dum didn’t stand a chance at matching him. He found himself marvelling at Royce’s reflexes. He had always been quick but that was insane.  
‘I’m gettin’ a little fed up with you, choom,’ he growled quietly, the gun aimed at his head.  
‘I’m the only one left, Royce. Your band of _Merry men_... the ones that made this possible for you,’ Dum Dum murmured, staying perfectly still.  
‘That’s why it will be a fuckin’ shame when I blow your face off...’  
He could feel Tommy twitching to his side.  
‘I let you gonks do whatever you want, right. There are no limits to the fuckin’ sick shit that can happen, with impunity, under my roof. The only thing I fuckin’ require... is loyalty. Now, I need you to understand that if you talk to me like that again, I will kill you.’  
He held his gaze for a long moment before nodding once.  
‘Fuckin’ gravy,’ he whispered, putting his gun on the desk. ‘We’re in deep shit, Dum Dum. The gang is haemorrhaging dough. I’m already havin’ to carry out... internal recycling.’  
‘What?’ Dum Dum screwed his face up.  
‘Nothin’ serious, just... some of the lower leagues got upgrades that we need back,’ he puffed on his cigar. ‘Can’t afford to replace it all. It’s fuckin’ wasted on them anyway.’  
He gave him a dirty look. ‘Internal recycling... man, I thought you said-‘  
‘I know what I fuckin’ said... I didn’t realise we’d be on our knees. _That_ also doesn’t get out - if it does, I’ll know who it came from,’ Royce pointed at Tommy.  
Dum Dum didn’t know what to say. Internal recycling sounded like a community green scheme to improve the environment, but in reality it was a hell of a lot more sinister. It involved taking the implants out of “baby gangers”, the ones that hadn’t been with them for long, or more often than not, the women of the group. Anyone that was deemed to have “wasted” the gang’s resources - they better hope that they didn’t come for them. Dum Dum couldn’t remember the last time he had even heard the term. This sort of thing had been forgotten about during Maelstrom’s more profitable years, and even when it had happened, it was more rumour than actuality. The top had always tried to keep it very much under-wraps. Every ganger knew their upgrades didn’t really belong to them, it was unwritten, but obvious to anyone with half a brain. Still, it was hard to believe that your adoptive “family” would cut them out of you and leave you to die afterwards. 

‘There must be other ways. We can’t start doing that...’  
‘I’m all fuckin’ ears,’ he spat back him.  
‘Just leave it with me, OK? Don’t...’ he tailed off.  
Royce leant back in his chair, his head turned to the window. He sucked his bottom lip. ‘None of those gonks know... how much their fuckin’ faces are worth,’ he whispered, almost more to himself than the men in front of him. He then chuckled softly and Dum Dum felt a shiver run up his spine. ‘Life is too easy for some...’  
Dum Dum looked at Tommy and then back at Royce. ‘We’ll sort this.’  
‘Yeah...’ Royce murmured, but he seemed to be lost in thought. ‘Yeah. Fuck off. I’ll hit you up later.’

The two men didn’t speak to each other until they had reached the empty alleyway at the back of the club. Dum Dum turned his mods on Tommy who still had his hand on his gun.  
‘Fuck,’ he hissed, kicking a trash can over.  
‘What are you gunna do?’ Tommy said, standing still.  
Dum Dum didn’t know shit. He had always felt like picking sides was not his strong suit. Even when he was a little street kid, the others he ran with would get the spit kicked out of them by bigger, older bullies. He was an eternal underdog, but that was exactly why he had followed Royce, the biggest bully of them all. It had turned out Royce wasn’t the answer either.  
‘I don’t know,’ he leant against the wall.  
Tommy looked down the street to their left. There was a small gaggle of junked ravers that had just left the club and they were hovering on their side of the door. He stepped closer to  
Dum Dum, lowering his voice. ‘Did he mean what he said... y’know about... everything?’  
Dum Dum gave him a look.  
‘Like, is Maelstrom really in such deep shit?’  
He shrugged. ‘Who knows. I don’t do the accounts... no one really knows exactly what’s going on apart from him.’  
‘Didn’t you used to do that sort of thing?’  
Dum Dum laughed grimly. ‘Ha. Yeah... he froze me out pretty quickly, though. Fuck, the guy has probably taken it all for himself. Did you see him pull his gun? No, you didn’t, no one did. That guy has some million-eddie upgrades on his arms. Reflexes like that... I ain’t never seen it before.’  
Tommy looked down at the ground. ‘I’m with you,’ he muttered. ‘Whatever we need to do.’  
Dum Dum smiled at him. ‘Thanks, man. I guess first we see if we can pull this off. Speak to the Scavs. If it all goes to hell, fuck... we’ll see.’  
‘And what if it goes right?’  
Dum Dum focused on him, he knew what he was getting at. ‘Then we decide what to do next. I won’t let him run this fuckin’ gang into the ground...’

They bid their farewells in the parking lot, Tommy returning to the club and Dum Dum hopping on his bike to get back to All Foods. He had almost forgotten about V, but not quite. She was always there, a little warmth at the back of his head. He sped back as fast as he could, and once he had arrived at the warehouse, he half walked-half ran to get to his apartment in the basement. He hoped she hadn’t fallen out of bed or wet herself or any of the other things that had happened the last two days.  
Coming through the sliding door, he threw his keys on the side with a clatter and let his mods fall on the bed opposite. He stared at it for a second before going slightly numb. She wasn’t there. He walked over and patted it stupidly, as if she could be hiding inside the mattress. _Fuck_. He spun around and looked under his desk, inside the wardrobe and then, clearly out of his mind, the fridge.  
‘She’s not in the fuckin’ fridge, dipshit,’ he whispered to himself.  
He was on the verge of a meltdown when he heard a noise coming from the bathroom. It was the sound of the tap running, which it did, on and off. Dum Dum walked up to the door and put his ear next to it. Silence. He opened it. V was in the bath, at least, he assumed it was her. The curtain had been pulled right across the tub and all he could really see what a feminine silhouette laying in the water. Then she spoke, and the voice, although clearly strained, was quite unmistakable.  
‘You’re back...’  
Dum Dum couldn’t help but smirk a little. A combination of relief that she was still there and relief that her first words weren’t telling him to go fuck himself.  
‘You’re... up...’ he said slowly.  
‘Just about. I’m a little stiff... and needed a bath. I was... quite putrid, actually.’  
He moved inside the room and sat down carefully on the closed toilet seat.  
‘How do you feel?’  
‘I’ve been better. Waking up to find yourself completely stripped of your implants is... unpleasant. Not to mention, in a Maelstrom compound... apparently a prisoner.’  
Dum Dum looked at the ground, a pang of guilt. ‘Yeah... Sorry about that...’ he gazed at her shadow. He was always looking at her through some sort of partition, he realised. It had been a common theme. She was, even now, untouchable.  
‘What was even stranger was that, on top of the old sweat and blood, I’m sure I smelt like... strawberries...’ she purred.  
He pressed his lips together. ‘Uh... yeah. I mean, I was trying to feed you... it was a smoothie or... yoghurt kinda drink...’ he paused but she didn’t respond, ‘I think it was... strawberry flavour.’  
‘Mmm... I love strawberry.’  
Dum Dum grinned. ‘Good.’  
‘So, you’ve been looking after poor little me, huh?’  
His heart fluttered and he cleared his throat. How did she make him feel like this? Like a naughty child with sticky fingers, without raising her voice, without chastising him at all.  
‘Just... the essentials.’  
‘I have to admit, I was surprised to find myself still in my clothes.’  
‘Huh... well, I... I didn’t want you to feel like you’d woken up in a fuckin’ nightmare.’  
‘That’s sweet. But they stank. You could have got me changed... got me cleaned up.’  
Dum Dum mouthed an expletive to himself. ‘Oh. I just thought... read the room, y’know?’  
‘Read the room?’  
‘After what I had done... I’m not a fuckin’ moron, y’know...’  
She moved in the tub, the water lapped the sides.  
‘I see... because of the perverted stalking, you didn’t want to also abuse me here?’  
Dum Dum laughed. He was always so surprised at the balls on her.  
‘Yes... if that’s how you wanna put it.’  
‘We should probably talk about that, huh? I feel like I only have half of the story.’  
‘Okay...’ he said, his voice failing him a little.  
‘I want you to tell me what you did. Everything.’  
‘You heard Royce...’  
‘I wanna hear it from you,’ her voice croaked a little but she spoke forcefully.  
‘Why does it matter now?’  
‘I don’t really understand. I’m trying to understand.’  
‘V, you don’t know me. Of course you don’t understand.’  
‘I thought I had a grasp. When you threatened me that night, I knew it was just hot air... I felt pretty confident you would never do that to me.’  
Dum Dum leant back and sighed. ‘That was naive of you.’  
‘I’m never naive. And I’m still not wrong. You have, in a weird, fucked up way, managed to protect me.’  
He stared hard at the shower curtain, V’s silhouette was staying very still.  
‘I got you into this.’  
‘Yeah. So now, you’ll tell me what I want.’  
He shook himself, wondering vaguely how she managed to hold the upper hand, even now, as his “prisoner”. Well, if she wanted the truth, she’d get it.  
‘I was dreaming about you. Fuckin’ every night. Thought I was going insane. I just spent the days... thinking about what I wanted to do. I tried to get over it. I tried,’ he waited for a moment to see if she would interrupt. ‘I got a fuckin’ Joytoy in that I thought looked a bit like you... but she didn’t come close,’ he rubbed his face and sighed. ‘I couldn’t fuckin’ deal with not seein’ you. Fuckin’ pathetic but I was... I dunno. Anyway, I ended up goin’ over to your place.’  
He watched V’s head move and rest on her knees.  
‘Thing is... I didn’t really know what I was gunna do. Looking back, I still don’t think I had decided until I was there. Fuck, V. I could have fuckin’ murdered you. It was just a roll of the fuckin’ dice.’  
‘Then what...’  
‘Well... you showed up as I was tryin’ to get in to your apartment. I was kinda jacked up, I guess. I went inside instead of leaving.’  
‘That’s crazy luck.’  
‘Yep. Fuckin’ feet from each other,’ he thought she would have more to say but yet again she remained silent. He kicked at the floor. ‘I thought you’d find me... man, if you had found me. V... I was pretty prepared for anything.’  
The bath’s faucet suddenly dribbled into the water. The sound echoed.  
‘Why am I fuckin’ tellin’ you this shit?’  
‘Because for now, I’m stuck here. Because I want to know,’ she said firmly.  
‘Fine... I stayed there a little while. I... watched you, obviously.’  
‘Watched me what?’  
‘Fucks sake... get undressed, y’know...’  
‘Huh.’  
‘Then you went for a shower and I connected to your computer, uploaded and... that’s it. I left.’  
‘You just left?’  
Dum Dum shifted, his mouth thin. What was that feeling he had? It was familiar. Like a sixth sense for when someone knew something he didn’t. He’d felt like it before. Backbone twitching. It was like when Royce had laughed in his office. Maybe he wasn’t all that perceptive, maybe someone else, someone like V would have picked up on it immediately and actually run with it. Actually acted on that creeping suspicion that something-was-defo-fucking-up. It didn’t matter here and there was a requirement in his character to let things go. You couldn’t be a Maelstrom ganger and overthink every single situation. You would end up insane.  
‘Yes... pretty much.’  
‘Pretty much?’  
‘Yeah. Fuck... is that not enough, that I did what I did?’  
V lay back in the water. Dum Dum watched the shadow stretch out, legs extending the length of the tub. He gripped his own thigh. The sensation of appalling her, of shocking her would make him feel so good, and he knew it. Like a serial killer going over his crimes with a psychologist. Living them again. She was drawing them out of him too, venom from a wound, but he didn’t know why.  
‘K... I didn’t leave... right away.’  
He felt her smile, ‘no? What did you do?’ She spoke like she already knew. All his senses suddenly pricked up. He tried to push on through, but it was difficult. He was burning inside.  
Dum Dum tried to stop his voice from shaking. ‘I followed you...’ he whispered, the slow release of information was making him hard. He shifted again.  
‘Oh no...’  
‘Yeah... I followed you into the shower. I watched you... and you weren’t just getting clean.’  
‘Gosh,’ she whispered, ‘what was I doing?’  
Dum Dum huffed, showing his teeth. ‘Why are you fuckin’ doin’ this? Is it so you know exactly how fucked off to be with me?’  
‘I’m not fucked off.’  
‘How?’  
‘Tell me... what I was doing... while you were watching me,’ she said firmly, her voice making him angry but throb all the same. ‘I want you to describe it.’  
He swallowed. ‘I heard you, before I saw.... You were facing away from me. The water was... running down your back... you were covered in blood, I dunno if it was yours or someone else’s... both, maybe. It was all washing off of you. Underneath, your skin...’ his breath caught in his chest. ‘You were all over yourself. I nearly lost my mind, V... I couldn’t stop it, couldn’t help but... get lost in it. It was the... fuckin’ purest thing.’  
‘And what did you do?’  
‘You know what I did,’ he breathed.  
‘Tell me.’  
‘You’re trying to fuck with me,’ he growled.  
‘I’m making you see why...’  
He paused. He looked down at the swollen bulge in his pants and pressed against it, rubbing his thumb along the length.  
‘I took what I wanted from it. I fuckin’ came in my hand over it... over you. And you didn’t even fuckin’ know. Then I did the same thing, over and over. Watched you through those cameras every time you were home.’  
‘Why?’  
He stamped his boot on the floor. ‘I don’t fuckin’ know _why_!’ He shouted, running his hand back through the wire tendrils that protruded from the top of his skull. ‘Does there need to be an answer to that? What do you want me to say? That no one’s ever loved me? That I used to torture family pets? None of that is true. I liked taking your privacy from you because you are fuckin’ beautiful and I wasn’t allowed to have you but there was nothing you could do about it.’ He sat there, feeling hot and humiliated. He wanted to pull her out of the bath right that second and choke her, or cut her, or do something to regain what he had lost... and then it hit him.  
‘Control...’ he whispered to himself. Dum Dum looked to his side. He watched as V’s fingers hooked around the shower curtain and pulled it slightly to reveal a slither of her face. He met with her cool gaze. Saw her wet hair slicked back. He liked how the little tuffs of her eyebrows spread in all different directions. They seemed darker whilst damp. She wasn’t smiling, but her eyes were wide, electric masses.  
‘Control,’ she repeated quietly, ‘I took it from you, didn’t I? You needed it back.’  
The sound of his quickened breath was all that could be heard in that room. He felt like he was going to burst. He tried to laugh but it hurt.  
‘You fuckin’ kill me.’  
‘I’m sorry...’  
‘Don’t fuckin’ apologise to me...’ he stood. ‘You’re right, you’re the one who’s stuck here so you oughta just stop. ‘Cause I can only be so nice for so long,’ he glanced down at her as he went to leave. She was smiling knowingly. It made him want to put his fist through a wall.  
‘D...’ the word that sounded the arrival of more desperate pulses in his crotch. He stopped at the doorframe, placing a hand against the metal. He heard the water lapping against the bath, spilling onto the floor and the scratching of the shower curtain. Turning his head, he looked to where her face had been just seconds before but found himself staring at her legs instead. His mods rolled slowly up her body. The beads of bath water clung all over her skin. Every muscle on her appeared to be tensed, and her neat little breasts were balled, perfectly round, her nipples stiff. Even though he had seen her like this before, he couldn’t quite prepare himself for that moment. She was very real.  
He had made an odd noise that wasn’t really a word, it was a bit like: ‘Bwoh...’ and then he managed to speak English. ‘Fuck.’  
‘I need a towel,’ she said neutrally.  
He stood there, fully struck, and nodded. Dum Dum grabbed one from the other side of the door and went closer to hand it to her. She took it and wrapped it around herself. He reverted to his position, moving backwards as she stepped out of the bath. She kept on looking at him as she dried off, and then walked, without much hesitation, towards him. V brushed her towelled body up against his in the doorway, pausing briefly, making sure she looked up into his face as she did.  
‘Thank you,’ she whispered. Dum Dum nearly ate into her words, but before he could touch her, she had slipped by. His stomach knotted with frustration. Writhing shame and vexation started pulling hard at his gut. He watched her tie the towel around her tighter, and try to tease the tangles out from her damp hair with her fingers. He would not be provoked any longer. Control was indeed slipping away, in all facets of his life. In here, he would retrieve it.  
He stalked over to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her around. She had just enough time to utter a tiny squeak of surprise before he had clenched his hand around her throat and lifted her easily from the ground. Without her mods and her implants, she was truly helpless but still she tried to claw at his fingers. When he slammed her back down, she was against the wall of his apartment. Dum Dum squeezed her neck, and she gasped. He could feel her heartbeat run wild. Her hands slid from his to place themselves either side of her head in an apparent show of surrender. V looked at him strangely. Fear, anger or something else.  
‘You like my attention, don’t you?’ Dum Dum said carefully.  
‘D...’ V blinked at him, her eyes becoming misty. She looked like a dream.  
‘Take it off,’ he instructed her. ‘You like it when I look at you. So take it off.’  
She squinted a little at him, her lips pursing in defiance. He squeezed her again and she choked.  
‘Fuckin’ do it,’ he growled.  
She untucked herself and the towel fell to the floor. Dum Dum twitched, loosening around her. His mods scanned downwards. He slid his hand from her throat onto her collarbone, spreading his fingers across her skin. V’s chest kept rising and falling dramatically. Her eyes were flicking all over his face.  
‘What are you looking for?’ He muttered.  
She didn’t speak, but swallowed hard. He couldn’t help but notice a flush rising in her cheeks. She wet her lips with her tongue. She looked at him with curious intrigue.  
Dum Dum bent his neck and buried himself just under her jaw. He heard her sharp intake of breath and thought he might come from the sound alone. He didn’t kiss her, bite her, he breathed her in. It was what he had wanted to do for so long. Dum Dum retreated and watched her in some shock. It made him feel lightheaded. He brought his middle finger up to his mouth and moved it over his metallic tongue. When she realised what he intended to do, she tried to struggle but he quickly found her neck again, forcing her head back against the wall.  
‘I’m playing the game, V,’ he spoke into her ear. Dum Dum moved his other hand down her stomach, and she jumped a little. After finding her, this time without the restriction of her underwear, he gently parted delicate folds and slid his finger right through. He followed a soft, wet channel, sweeter than anything.  
V moaned with some reluctance, her brows collecting with the effort of defeating irresistible touch. He watched her face as he also caught himself from a shuddering breath. The excitement was painful, the wait was too long. She sighed and stretched and all in time with him. He released her neck and she slid her arms above her head, rolling her torso.  
‘Fuck...’ he breathed, nearly spontaneously coming in his pants.  
‘Oh... god...’ she put her hands on his chest as he almost lifted her from the floor. ‘Stop...’ she groaned as he pressed himself against her.  
‘Wha..?’  
‘Stop,’ she said again, more forcefully this time, into his ear.  
He didn’t know what it was that made him so obedient to her, but sure enough, he slowed. What the fuck was going on? He released her entirely. She panted before him. Dum Dum quaked with a mixture of confusion, dull anger, his hand on his crotch before falling to his knees in front of her. He gazed at her in disbelief. V smiled down at him, stroking his face. Her cheeks rosy.  
‘That was _very_ mean.’  
‘You fuckin’ bitch,’ he shook his head.  
‘Now you’re playing the game, D,’ she purred, ‘the best part about it is that you it doesn’t matter what implants you got... the playing field is up here,’ she touched his temple and stepped to the side of him, picking up her towel and moving back into the middle of the room.  
‘Now, although I very much enjoy being naked, I’m going to need some clothes...’ she said, twisting around in the mirror, admiring herself from behind. When she looked back she let out a short sigh of surprise, her eyebrows raised. Dum Dum was still kneeling, but now he clutched himself in his fist, pumping his erection, watching her. His mouth open slightly in concentration.  
‘Hm... wow,’ she bit her lip.  
He gritted his teeth and bowed his head, moving even faster.  
‘You are a sick boy, aren’t you D?’  
He grinned a little, panting with the effort.  
‘What are you smiling about?’ She crossed her arms.  
‘I’m smiling ‘cause... next time I do this... it’ll be inside your fuckin’ mouth...’ he groaned, spraying the ground in front of him. V’s eyes narrowed and she raised an eyebrow. Dum Dum put his hands on his legs and laughed out in relief at the ceiling. Whatever he was going through outside of that room, it didn’t matter anymore. V was going to keep him company for the foreseeable, and she happened to be his tonic for life.  
He walked on his hands and knees over to the console and grabbed a cigarette and a lighter. His hands shook as he lit up.  
‘Man... I gotta get outa here. You’re more crazy than I thought,’ V said, smirking at him.  
Dum Dum did his version of a wink: his left mod flicked off and on again.


End file.
